AQUARIUM
by llillianka
Summary: Four years have passed since the last shinobi war. Karin finds herself living a life of slave work and absent love. However her next door neighbor will present himself one night and will change her life for ever. Confusion and misunderstandings will surround her as fate seemed carved in stone. KarinxNaruto
1. FIRST ENCOUNTER

Hello everybody! Well, this is my first fanfic ever so I hope that you help me if you see any weird plot holes that I may not been covering properly. I really like Karin and Naruto together. For some reason I think that they could make a really cool and funny couple. The next pairing that I have found interesting involving Karin is of course with Sasuke and maybe Sai. This fic may have a little Sakura bashing so take the emotional precautions needed if you like her. I have been writing this fic in Spanish and I thought, what the hell lets translated it to English, if no one likes it at least I practice my writing skills.

I started with some weird punctuation preference of mine but later I realized that it was not fair to the readers as they are accustomed to some rules that do not apply in Spanish. So for the sake of respecting the audience and English language I re-write the couple of chapters that were on English and posted the third with the correct punctuation. As I am not very skilled with this way of writing please let know of any mistakes!

So the dialogue will be enclosed in ""

The thoughts will be written in cursive _like this. _

I hope you find it good! :)

**FIRST ENCOUNTER**

This story takes place four years after the fourth shinobi war's end. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto get along as good teammates and even as friends.

After the war Sasuke decided to roam the world alone so he could find his true path in life, to think of a way and a purpose for living life. His brother had made a mistake yes. He had committed a terrible mistake… however he forgave him, he forgave him because first of all he loved him very much and second because he could not live with the grudge and resentment that revenge demands. Additionally he forgave himself and took the decision to live. To get to this point it took for Sasuke one year of rolling solo by the paths and valleys of the lands of fire, water, thunder and rock and also it took for him to see as everything around him -despite the war- chose life over destruction. As soon as he decided to forgive himself and as soon as he realized that he may have a second chance as well, he chose to go back to Konoha. There he met the one that would become his girlfriend and later on his wife, Hanabi Hyuga. He entered the AMBU and was considered one of the strongest and most competent Jounin of the village.

Sakura is the chief of medicine at the Konoha's Hospital been only surpassed in rank by Shizune. After the war, she came to the village with her heart and her mind in order. She did not longer loved Sasuke in an irrational way. She surpassed her capriciousness and coward behaviors, proper of past adolescent weaknesses and now she also have given herself the opportunity to look to other boys, to fall in love again… although this time in a healthier way, without comprising other people's lives. In those four years she had had some romances but nothing serious. She felt quite well as chief of medicine at the hospital, occupying her time between the task that her work demanded and the missions that occasionally Tsunade assigned her.

Naruto, meanwhile, is one of the highest ranked Jounin of Konoha. He is an AMBU. Although unlike Sasuke, Naruto occasionally is also assigned to group missions. He… still has some adolescent weaknesses, mainly concerning Sakura. Although his feelings had diminished and he no longer felt the same as before for her, he still had a small little hope that she will finally notice him. Naruto stayed the four years that had passed since the fourth shinobi war's end in Konoha as a top Jounin. He was a full grown man now, better dressed and a little more prudent. No longer was he as loud as before or shouted as when he was younger…, just a little less but not too much. He still was the energetic kid, happy and fun. He lives in his old apartment where he has now as a neighbor a former enemy, Karin.

Due to their collaboration in the war against Madara, it was offered to Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo to be part of Konoha as shinobi, to be only accepted by Karin. The other two opted to follow other paths outside the villages.

Karin wanted to change her life and start from scratch. She saw the opportunity when Tsunade offered to the former Taka teammates the possibility to live in Konoha and be part of a village. She never had been an active part of any community. She had always acted in ways that facilitate others to achieve their objectives, as she did not have objectives of her own. That's why she worked along with Orochimaru in his experiments and later followed Sasuke with his revengeful mission. Since the war started and also since Sasuke stabbed her, wounding her chest with his chidori, she decided that for the first time she needed to find a purpose of her own, a purpose different to what she have been doing all of her life, something different from been a follower of other people's dreams.

And so it was that with all the hope that a change of live brings that Karin attended to her first day of training as a Konoha ninja where she received her hitai-ate and it was assigned to her a place to live. She would remember later on that first day as one that will give her clues as how she will be treated in those four years following the end of the war, lived in Konoha…

"Karin! Here, there is your hitai-ate." Hayate trowed the piece of clothing contemptuously falling in front of her feet. Karin picked her up. Despite the roughness of his jester, Karin had arrived to the armory that morning with the world's entire disposition to have a good day, cheered and even a little flirty. Thus she will not be feeling bad so easily.

"Ok, thank you….! Emmm… you have not told me your name yet" Karin said with a smile. Hayate looked at her in a serious way for a moment, a stare mixed with a little of resentment and annoyance.

"Hayate"

"Ok Hayate-san, thank you for the hitai-ate. Now…, where will I live? I hope that the place has a lot of trees and air flows, maybe a little balcony—" Hayate started laughing mockingly at Karin

"Look… Karin" He pronounced her name with derisive contempt "you must be grateful just to have a place to live, not everyone has that privilege. I do not know what the reasons were for Hokage-sama decided to allow you to live with us…, but you must be certain that you are anything close to a savior or hero in our village. You are just… a guest… and you have to earn your place as a Kunoichi" Hayate finished his discourse slowly with a note of mystery in his words.

"jumm, ok I was not expecting a mansion either! Rude…"

"This is the address of the place you will be living in" Hayate handed a paper and a key to Karin "Tomorrow at 6:00am you must present yourself at the Hokage's office. Now get the hell out!" His last words were said calmly and serious. He then ignored her, staring at some papers he had over his desk.

Karin a little disappointed by the tone of Hayate's words but at the same time happy because she finally had some place to call a home, left the armory with a destination in mind, the address that was on the paper. Whilst she walked towards her new home, she unconsciously ignored the stares that some village people gave her, some of them of distrust others of disgust.

She was happy to have a place to call a home. She even started to think on the colors for her curtains: pastel yellow.

Soon she arrived to her destination. She looked at the building that the address showed and could not help but to grimace.

"mmm, such an ancient building! Well maybe is better inside"

She climb up the stairs energetically and quickly arrived to her floor. She saw that there were two doors, which indicated two apartments. Karin looked at the paper which indicated that her apartment was No 302. She walked towards her new apartment and opened the door. It was a huge surprise when she found out that her new home was a dumpster. The furniture comprised a bed without mattress, an old little kitchen and a simple wooden table without chairs. Everything was covered by a layer of dust and spider webs. The bathroom was in deplorable conditions, not running water, the pipes were clogged. The bathtub was broken and the shower did not work. The sunlight did not enter the place as the windows were covered in layers and layers of filth. The ceiling had two mayor leaks right above were the bed was and when she closed the door behind her and tried to turn on the lights a spark jumped from the bulb blinding her momentarily, creating a short circuit leaving the place without electricity. In the dark it appear to her that a rat came out running from what in other time seemed to be the pantry but that now seemed the entrance to hell.

"well, well, it will not be a palace but it is mine. Now let's work!"

Despite the state of her new home, Karin did not lose her cheerful attitude. It would take her a few months to make her place habitable for a human, contrary at what was when she first entered, somewhere that resembled more of a place for rats and bugs. The first months were the hardest and not only because the living conditions of her home were awful, but for the amount of work and the conditions that she would be subjected to. The missions followed one after another leaving her with little time to make the proper arrangements to make her place a home. She was assigned to suicidal missions from which she saved herself by sheer determination. In those four years she did not have much more than a week off at the time between missions. Then she will be surprised with the amount of work she accomplish with her apartment in the little time that she had free.

As the time went by the enthusiasm for her new life started to diminish, primarily due to the amount of missions she was assigned to. Little by little she realized that no one else in the village, that no shinobi was given the amount of missions that was given to her, or so closed to each other. She barely had met her neighbor Naruto. She had saw him from time to time leaving his apartment that was right next to hers when she arrived from her endless missions, but it never went beyond a hello with him.

She just had made one single friend in Konoha in those four long years. She was a regular team mate. Although she did not have a fixed team, Hanabi Hyuga was one of the kunoichi with whom she had spent more time in missions and she was close to her. Later on life Karin would thought that, by not assigning her a fix team of fellow shinobi , the village had made impossible for her to have solid relationships, but this did not crossed her mind when she was still living there.

Occasionally when Tsunade did not assigned her missions from one day to another (which occurred rarely), she hanged out with Hanabi. The couple of friends went to bars for drinks and dancing. These nights out happened before Sasuke arrived to Konoha. For a year they were best friends. When Sasuke arrived, Hanabi and he enlisted into AMBU where they finally met each other and became boyfriend and girlfriend. Due to the fact that Sasuke until that point in time have not ask her for forgiveness, for all the things he did to her, especially when he almost killed her in the fight against Danzo, Karin and Sasuke did not speak to each other so as a consequence of Hanabi and Sasuke becoming a couple, Karin and Hanabi were not as close as before.

That would be the life of Karin for those four years, those four years up until that night.

Karin had been assigned to a mission with Anko and Hanabi. Although she was not longer as close to Hanabi as before, they still got along quite well. They were inspecting a field where was reported a sight of strayed ninjas. Hanabi was on watch checking the surroundings with her Byakugan whilst Anko and Karin were watching some traps that those stray ninjas leave behind.

"It is weird that they leave this traps so shallow" Anko observed

"Yes…, it would seem that they left the work behind half done, but why?"

"emmm girls I think I know why they leave everything half-done… RUN!" Hanabi suddenly shouted.

A herd of deers enter rapidly into the clearing where the three kunoichis were. Anko and Hanabi could evade quickly the herd that moved with great strength by jumping to the closest tree, however, Karin tripped with a tree root that protruded from the ground.

"KARIN!" both Anko and Hanabi shouted at the same time

Karin fell on her side dislocating her shoulder. In the ground with her dislocated shoulder she could not avoid an adult deer that stomped his way through the clearing, stepping on Karin's other arm and foot.

"Karin, are you Ok?" Hanabi asked when the herd finally passed.

"I… I think..so…, I just have a dislocated shoulder" Karin could barely speak because of the pain.

"It is better that we return to Konoha, it is getting darker and you need that shoulder checked" Grabbing her by her non dislocated shoulder, Hanabi helped Karin return to Konoha.

As always in the hospital after been brought hurt from yet another mission, Karin was treated dryly and rudely.

"Well Karin I have to go back home. Sasuke is waiting for me, it's been a long time since we saw each other!, it seems like Tsunade does not give him a break!"

"It is Ok Hanabi, I get it, I don't get much breaks either… but… thank you for accompany me to the hospital."

"Soon the Dr will come and will see you. Please forgive me for leaving you" She made a little vow to Karin and left the room running as fast as she could.

Karin sighted and flinched from the pain as involuntarily she had moved her dislocated shoulder. Dr Shizune went out to attend the patients that were in the waiting area. When she saw Karin, her expression changed, hardening.

"Now what did you do to yourself?, are you not aware that there are other people that are really sick and need medical attention?"

"Shizune-san, I fell in a mission that your boss assigned to me in the last minute. I have not slept in two days because I had just arrived from another mission but she did not have that into account. You are the ones that are not aware."

Upset, Shizune proceeded to fix her shoulder and then she put a sling holding in her arm. She checked her other wounds confirming that there were no other fractures or dislocations. She bandage her other arm and her foot. Everything was made very professionally but without a single touch of amiability.

"Take this meds, you have a three sick days leave." Shizune put the meds with indifference on the table.

"Thank you. Oh Shizune-sama I almost forgot…"

"what?"

"Tell your boss that I will not be going to her office to inform her about my accident. This time I will not go. You go."

Shizune did not say anything, leaving the room without saying goodbye.

Karin thought about her return home. She also realized that three days of leave were not a lot and despite been an Uzumaki she did not believed that she would heal so fast. It would take a little while, she felt tired and breathless. She took her meds and slowly started walking home. After some long minutes she arrived to her building and started climbing the stairs with difficulty. She thought that it was a superhuman effort to climb the three floors to her apartment's door but still she did it as always.

When she finally arrived to her door, she realized that it would be a little difficult to reach her apartment's key as she usually put it in her kunai's pouch located in her right side, precisely the side of her dislocated shoulder. With her left arm, that was also hurt, she tried to open her pouch with unsatisfactory results as that hand was holding the bag of meds.

"Damn key. I'm sooo stupid! I should have let a spare copy under the mat."

In that particular moment Naruto had just finished climbing the stairs. He had just arrived from a reconnaissance mission, nothing too hard. He had never notice or gave much thought about the existence of his neighbors. Usually he was late for everything and thus he left his house running all the time, jumping over the neighboring houses' rooftops without putting too much attention to the people living in them. However, that night, he was in a good mood, was not late for anything and had tons of remaining energy as the mission of that day was quite simple and he made it without problems. That was why he notice that someone was cursing in front of the next door apartment. It was her neighbor Karin.

"Hello! Problems with the door?" Naruto approached her.

"amm Hello!" Karin answered distractively whilst she tried to open her pouch. She didn't even looked up to match Naruto's eyes.

Naruto noticing her estate, a little beating up, her arm in a sling, decided to help her. He open the pouch, took her key and open her door.

"Oh… thank you…" She said with a little surprise in her voice. It was strange that someone help her out. Since the moment that Karin accepted to be part of Konoha as a Kunoichi no one had done anything to help her out or had done something nice for her (besides Hanabi) on the contrary it seemed that the village wanted for her to fail.

"It is nothing really… seems that you have a rough day" Naruto stare at her with a little curiosity. Why would she be like that?

Sighting, Karin avoided his curiosity filled stare by entering her apartment. She felt a little examined by his eyes, like a guinea pig. She then turn to him and with a tired glance she said "As always…"

She lock eyes with Naruto's, hiding her tiredness. She said goodbye giving him a sincere smile. If she were to be a little less tired she even would have flirted. But she did not have the energy so she did not do it. "Arigato Naruto-kun, you have been really nice. See you later."

Naruto returned the smile and said "Ok take care!" He felt a little bad for her. It seemed that she had been beaten badly. He felt the urge to ask for her day, but a sudden shyness took hold of him; maybe she did not wanted to be disturbed, he thought, she was tired and maybe she did not wanted to talk about her day. Thus he turn around and entered his apartment.

As soon as he entered his apartment Naruto started to plan his dinner. "Well tonight what kind of ramen should I eat?..." He asked himself. Looking at his instant ramen drawer filled with boxes of different preparations he said to himself "mmmm what could possible Karin make with her arm like that, I don't think that much…" Looking at his ramen selection he chose the largest one and he headed to his neighbor's apartment. That night the two of them would kill their loneliness for a bit.


	2. HANAMI

Warnings: a little fluff and maybe a little OC

**HANAMI**

"Nock Nock" Karin was surprised by the door knocking.

"what an unusual day. Now I have visitors… and at this hour of the night…"

After Karin entered her apartment she changed her ninja clothes for a more comfortable one. Now she wore a dark blue silk pajama that consisted of a pant and a little straps shirt. She was preparing her tub for a relaxing bath when she heard the door.

"Hi Naruto. What's up?" Karin said mascaraing her surprise

"Nothing, I just thought… that we may share dinner tonight. I don't think that you could prepare anything with your arm like that."

"Well… true, please come in" she told him while smiling.

Naruto entered the room. It was a little cold, there were no curtains or drapes of any kind and little furniture decorated Karin's home.

"What do you have there" she ask her still smiling

"oh, this? This is just one of the best dinners that you ever tasted. It is the super special premium ramen! Only sold in spring time for Hanami! Easy to prepare and feeds a whole family!"

Karin looked at him perplexed for an instant, blinking in confusion. Noticing her look and to get out from the awkward moment, Naruto made his way to the little kitchen and started heating water and reached for two soup plates.

"Emm Naruto, how long do you think the ramen will take to prepare?"

"five minutes tops"

"ok, it's enough"

"enough for what?"

"well before you got here I was about to take a bath and finish healing my wounds"

Naruto stopped what he was doing and his expression changed. He turned a little serious and confused.

"Did you go to the hospital? Naruto asked"

"Sure. It is protocol. But they always leave me half way"

"That is not possible. Sakura-Chan is very careful with her patients" Naruto said with a frowned and serious look.

"Amm yes… maybe, but she did not attend me" Karin proceeded to take off her glasses and looking up she turned to Naruto and ask with a tired and sweet voice

"emm Naruto, can you help me with the sling? I can't unzip it alone"

Naruto walked towards where Karin was sitting and placing himself behind her, unzipped her sling while holding her dislocated shoulder. Then, Karin with her other hand finished healing her shoulder with the medical ninja technic.

"Thank you Naruto, I'm done. I think one more day with the sling and I will not be bothering you again."

"it's no bother"

"Don't say that, you could be anywhere but here tonight, I just ruined your plans"

"Really Karin? Well my ruined plans consisted in eating alone in my apartment an instant ramen dinner. But wait, I'm now eating instant ramen in my very own floor."

Karin smiled. It seemed that she was not the only one with lonely plans for the night.

"At least tonight I will not be eating alone" Naruto smiled as well. They looked each other and in that gaze they recognized that they understood what it meant to be alone. They didn't have to come up with fake plans or lie about the fact that they spent a lot of time by themselves. It was weird. They felt quite comfortable in each other company, they felt that they could let their guard down and be themselves without masks or acts, that they could be free and say whatever. That was what a gaze could tell.

"Well today you have the privilege to dine with Karin, a privilege that just a few have!" Karin broke the silence amusingly.

"Well, just a few have the privilege to eat with the Konoha hero, you know?" imitating her partner in the bluffing.

Both looked at each other and smiled again, although it did not last much as in that moment the teapot whistle, announcing that the water was ready. Naruto zipped Karin's sling, and while doing it, accidentally he moved her hair which release a pleasant aroma of roses that he liked and later wouldn't forget. Naruto set out to serve the dinner dividing in two the content of the instant ramen box in separate bowls, placing chopsticks for two.

"It is a relief that I dislocated my right arm; otherwise you will have to feed me and put the ramen in my mouth!" Karin said laughing a little.

"by the way…, what happened to you? I seems like Akamaru gave you one of his special hellos" Naruto said mockingly

Karin became serious, picked the chopsticks and started eating the ramen bowl that Naruto kindly set up for her.

"Well, I just… trip with a branch in a mission. It can happen to the best of the Kunoichis out there as you can see" She fixed her eyes in her plate, quietly, remembering that that clumsiness was the result of, not she had arrived from a mission where she could not catch a second of sleep in two days in a row, she was assigned immediately for another mission not been able to rest. She took another bite.

Naruto did not understood what could possibly upset her, maybe it was something that happened at the mission that she did not wanted to share… because falling, everybody falls. He couldn't even recall a time where he did not fell somehow in a mission. So been Naruto the way he is, he couldn't keep it to himself and asked what he was thinking.

"It is something wrong Karin? I don't think falling is something that you should worr..—"

"Why do you say it?" Karin asked defensively

"ehh well suddenly you kinda change, it was something I said? you can trust me, maybe I can help you with something!" Naruto rub the back of her neck while he waive his other hand trying to reassure her.

Karin on the other hand stared at him for a while. She pondered whether it would be prudent to tell him. In those four years that she have been living in Konoha, she had not complained with anybody, not even with Hanabi. She knew that this could be used against her. Additionally life had taught her that friends could become enemies from one moment to another…, although Naruto didn't quite fit that generalization. He was known for his loyalty, for always keeping his word…up to the end, which made her reflect even more, she, what was she for Naruto? Up until that night they both were a couple of strangers that occasionally saw each other, whilst Tsunade, she had been his protector, almost like a mother figure for him. Obviously he would act as Naruto and would have stand by Tsunade's side. Some memories pop up in her mind of the moment when she barely mentioned that she was not properly taken care of at the hospital of how defensive he was. So the conclusion was that the best she could do was… not telling him of how she had been treated and still was treated in Konoha.

She thought about it while holding her piercing stare.

Naruto swallowed as he felt examined as a guinea pig, why did she have to think so much? Why the mistrust? He thought.

Karin noticing that she was making him uncomfortable, relaxed her stare, smiling. However that smile was not as the ones she had exchange previously that night, it was not free and uncomplicated it was rather planed and forced.

"It is nothing Naruto, don't worry. The ramen is delicious!"

Naruto noting that she would not tell him anything decide it not to force it and nodded.

"I'm telling you, this is a special edition, only sold for Hanami"

Karin remembered that the Hanami festival would be taking place the next day. Finally she had put together enough money to buy something that she had always wanted to have and by remembering it her face light up in a way that Naruto couldn't help but to notice. He was glad that Karin returned to her previous self as the free spirited girl of a few minutes back and not that girl that had just offered him a courtesy smile.

"Do you like Hanami?"

"Who doesn't? I'm soo happy that I can finally buy something I always wanted to have" She pointed a blank space in her living room "I reserved that space since I sealed the leaks, in my first day in Konoha, for my aquarium"

"An aquarium?"

"Yes, at first I thought that I should buy a small one, but then then… not a lot of fish will fit there. So well, I thought that I would like some colorful fish, you know tropical fish and algae and little rocks you know?, so the smallest tank for tropical fish well… is not that small it is quite large. Although… you know why did I wanted a small one at first?" Karin spoke a thousand words per hour, it was clear that it was a subject that she was passionate about. As she was pouring herself on Naruto, a little color on her cheeks appeared and her lips turned redder, she looked a little bewitching. Naruto found himself slowly but pleasantly trapped in that conversation and of course he wanted to know why she wanted to buy the small one.

"Have you heard about beta fish? They are beautiful, you can have them in almost any color, pink, red, electric blue, fluorescent green matched with black… the thing is… they tend to have rough personalities."

"fish have personalities?"

"yep, if two beta fish find each other in the same aquarium, the strongest one will bite the other to dead, it doesn't matter if they are boys or girls. They are quite something" Karin took a deep breath and smiled happily as finally she could share something she really loved with someone, even so, if that someone was her strange neighbor Naruto.

"I see you really like those aquariums…"

"aha, since I was a little girl. Orochimaru had tons and it was my duty to take care of the fish and the aquariums. They were beautiful; they kind of bring back memories" a tint of nostalgia could be heard in Karin's voice.

"Uooo I did not think that someone could have a good time with Orochimaru haahaha"

"you see, sometimes you think that you are better off with someone but it turns out that you are not" again Karin turned serious, leaving Naruto wondering about what was wrong with her.

"Anyway!" Karin said returning to her previous mood "Tomorrow, taking advantage of my leave I will go and buy the aquarium" She held herself for a moment, doubting if it was right to ask him, but her emotions could not be contained and she just spill it.

"omm Naruto… could you go with me to buy it? Of course if you have the time"

Naruto thought about his day. He had invited Sakura for dinner, but as usually she did not confirmed which always meant no.

"Yes I can go with you; I don't have anything planed for tomorrow."

"Great!" Karin said almost shouting. She was glad to have company the day she finally was going to have her beloved and treasured aquarium and by the way the day of the Hanami festival or cherry blossom festival.

The two new friends kept talking that night till their ramen was gone. After that was finished they talked a little more about fish and call it for the night. She walked him to the door and there they set the hour when they would meet the next day.

"So Naruto I'll see you at the aquarium store at 3:00pm ok?"

"I'll be there Karin…, well then, have a good night"

"Wait, Naruto…, thank you for tonight, I truly needed one night like this" Karin blushed slightly. She looked up and stared at Naruto while she said it sincerely and warmly. Naruto meet her eyes and a fleeting desire overcame him, he did not wanted to leave Karin alone.

"No problem, if you need something I'll just be a few steps away." He returned her stare and smiled.

The two of them blush a little and said good bye. It was an interesting night for the two of them.


	3. PARALLEL STORIES

**PARALLEL STORIES **

The Hokage and her assistant were at the office. They were reviewing the requests for help sent to Konoha by different people, the urgent messages and the recognition tasks that later would be classified as missions, in categories A, B, S etc… They were also counting the available ninjas that remain in the village, their schedules and the completed missions of the past six months. The ninjas were selected in teams of three, each one with different capabilities, as required for every mission.

"Lady Tsunade"

"Yes, Shizune"

"Karin had an accident and dislocated her shoulder. She will be on sick pay for three days"

"mmm I see, she could not be part of this mission then. Instead, Sakura should go".

"I think that Naruto and Sai are free that day"

"No. Sai will go with Karin for the mission next Monday. Kiba also will go with them"

"Lady Tsunade, this is a very risky mission… maybe Karin is not up for the challenge after her accident, she is not 100% physically for this assignment"

"She will be alright" Tsunade said it without a second thought. "For the other mission put Sakura, Naruto and Hanabi in a team. They will be a good set of shinobis to scort the Feudal Lord to the eastern castle" she said it while reviewing some papers.

Shizune stood there pensive. She knew that Karin was not 100% in order to be put confidently in this mission. So, why the Hokage insisted so hard to keep Karin out of the village, assigning her tasks so overlapping, even without caring for her health?

Maybe she could not finally trust her. It was understandable that within the elders in the Council, suspicion was the only thing that describe their feelings when talking about Karin but well, it had been four years and she had not even complained once for how the missions where assigned to her. Others would already quit the village turning into renegades or mercenaries. Shizune thought that maybe she had been too rough on her that day. She felt a little guilty as how she had treated Karin, especially when she read Karin's file. Not even Karin had arrived that day to Konoha from a heavy mission, when she was been immediately sent off to other mission, without a rest. Next time she would be more attentive and would try to give her more days off, off course without Lady Tsunade's knowing.

"Shizune!" Tsunade yelled. "It is not the moment to stand there thinking! There is a lot of work to do! Start with assigning the missions and the chosen ninjas. Sakura's group will part on Sunday. Karin will be off on Monday."

"H..ai" Shizune answered, going back to work, momentarily forgetting about her thoughts on Karin.

* * *

While this was been decided in the Hokage's office, in another place in the village a couple chatted quite pleasantly.

"Sasuke!, a letter from mi sister arrived, she says that she is pregnant and that the baby will be borne in October!"

Hanabi ran to Sasuke's arms. He was sitting in a sofa, resting on several cushions. She sat at Sasuke's side in such a way that he could hold her by her side while she rested her head in his chest.

"Well, give them my congratulations; having a family is something that cannot compare with anything, even if you are the Kazekage and been able to have whatever you want. Will you visit your sister?"

"Yes, I think Hinata will need all the help that she can get. I think that since she married with Gaara she has not had a minute's rest. I don't think that he having all the weight of his title has a lot of free time when the baby comes. The same happens with his brother and sister. I still wonder what was that Hinata saw in Gaara and his dysfunctional family that made her marry and go on living at Suna"

"The same that you saw in me" Sasuke smiled at Hanabi and kiss her gently in her lips.

"It is different…" Hanabi smiled back.

"When will you go?"

"I'll ask for vacations when my nephew's birth due date gets closer. Is is soo weird to say 'nephew'"

"I would've liked to have nephews" Sasuke said with a little trace of sadness in his words.

"Well Sasuke, by October you will have your first nephew"

Sasuke smiled and hug her girlfriend. Each day that passed he was even surer that she was the love of his live. She had the ability to say the right thing at the right time. Her relationship wasn't forced, it flowed in such a way that make him feel good about himself. He would not wait too much in making her his wife.

"You would go with me, right?" Hanabi asked

"It all depends on my schedule, Tsunade has me all booked up" He laugh with a pinch of resignation. Hanabi turned serious and a little mad.

"I don't know what's up with Tsunade and you!, why is she always keeping you away at missions? We almost don't see each other!"

"It seems that I am the only one that is been treated this way. It is frustrating to know that after all this years they still don't trust me."

"You are not the only one…"

"What do you mean?"

"… There is someone else that is been assigned endless missions one after the other without rest" Answered an apprehensive Hanabi.

Hanabi was not sure about how to talk to Sasuke about Kairn. She knew that they had something in the times of Taka, but that they had abruptly ended it when he almost kill her in the bridge incident when Danzo was murdered. She was not jealous of her, she knew that both Sasuke and Karin did not have any feelings for each other. Nevertheless, she didn't know how he felt about her, maybe he didn't want to remember how he treated her as it was one of his lowest moments in his life.

Hanabi look at Sasuke significantly. He understood what it was all about. He moved over the cushins so he could lock eyes with her.

"Karin…" He said.

"Yes. She is been assigned lots of mission without rest, like you. This morning we were at a mission where she tripped and dislocated her shoulder. She looked tired since we got out of the village. I run into Sai when leaving the hospital to meet you and he confirmed what I thought. Kakashi, Sai and Karin had arrived this very morning from a mission where they could not sleep. However, whilst they were off duty Tsunade called Karin assigning her another mission with Anko and I where she fell.

Hanabi finished with her speech expectantly waiting for Sasuske's response. She had never touch the subject "Karin" with him as she considered it as a big red button that said "DO NOT TOUCH" in upper cases.

"It seems like Tsunade does not trust us yet. It has been four years and she still does not trust us?" He felt a little frustrated. He felt Hanabi's eyes questioning him, they asked for a response.

"Hanabi…, I hurt Karin so much. Sometimes I surprise myself of what I did. How could I've done that? Sometimes people in moments of madness do things without thinking about the consequences and pain that their actions infringe to innocents. I'm not sure if she would forgive me, but be certain that I will repent to the end of my days for what I did to her" Sasuke was sincere and the intensity of his feelings, translated to his words.

"I don't know Sasuke, but… maybe she can forgive you, you know? My cousin Neji said that he would never forgive the members of the main branch for the death of his father, my uncle. But life showed him the way, the way by which he could forgive, where he could be our cousin, our brother. You don´t know how much he helped my sister to overcome her fears and make her a stronger kunoichi a stronger person. That would not have happened if he would not forgive us. Do not underestimate a genuine ask-for-forgiveness or sorry. I'm not telling you what you have to do, just you can decide, but maybe Karin is just waiting for you to ask her for her forgiveness." She finish talking and gave him a quick kiss on his lips, she rose up and went to bed.

Sasuke was left alone in the dark room thinking about his past and also thinking how he could ask for forgiveness to Karin.

* * *

It was a fresh morning, it was not too cold and there were no clouds in the sky. Karin took advantage of her days off and slept all the way to mid-morning. It was almost noon when she woke up. It was a beautiful day and it would even be more when she could bring home her beautiful aquarium.

Karin stood up, checked her wounds and realized that she didn't need the sling, her shoulder did not hurt and she could move her arm without difficulty. No doubts about the Uzumaki's blood run in her veins. Due to the fact that she was not longer mobility impaired, she fixed a large breakfast and took a good shower. She included some aromatic oils in her bath, lavender and vanilla; usually se used roses, her favorite, but that day she wanted to change a little and why not? Lavender and vanilla was delicious too.

She also decided that that day she was going to wear her red blouse. It was a cotton's blouse, fitted to her body, with long sleeves and a boat neckline. It was red wine coloured which made her eyes and hair pop. Regarding the rest, she simply used her usual shorts and black leggings. When she saw herself at the mirror she tought _who are you dressing for, for you or Naruto?_

Karin with a sassy smile looked at herself in the mirror. She was not one of those women that fought their emotions or feelings when they roared in her chest, claiming modesty or other such silliness. In general she was one of those that surrender with passion to them. This had resulted inconvenient in the past, but it was only because she let herself be carried away without boundaries. This time she will go at it with a little more calm with some restrictions… just some.

She would later think that, she had to accept that she did wanted to get noticed by the blonde. He was a handsome guy, in shape, tall, fun and his lips were very provoking. Why she would not have something with him? It was true that she had not noticed him up to that day, but with the things that he had done the previous night he had made her notice him, she viewed him differently and her interest was now turned to him. Well after all, what could she lose? It was better to try and lose that never have tried at all.

"It is time"

Karin zipped her pouch took the money, the keys and leave her apartment heading to the aquarium store. The day was perfect and the threes all in bloom made of the day almost a dream. It seemed that the village was a pink and warm candy cotton. It was the favorite time of the year for Karin and many others, quite auspicious for romance. Soon it would became known that Sasuke Uchiha asked Hanabi Hyuga to marry him and of course her jolly acceptance. The weading would be celebrated in June just a couple of months after Hanami.

"Hello Naruto! So punctual" Karin smiled confidently and flirty

"Hi Karin…, of course. You said three and here I am" Naruto looked at Karin, she was beautiful. The color of her blouse intensified due to how the afternoon light fell on her, marking in a singular way the features of her face and the lines of her collar bones that peaked out of her blouse. He got closer to her and noticed a vanilla scent mixed with something indescribable that invaded him and make his heart race a little bit faster.

"Come on!" Karin invited and taking him by the hand guided him inside the store.

"You know Karin, last night you didn't tell me why you changed your mind, regarding buying beta fish"

"Well Naruto, is simple. They, the betas, cannot live with other fishes and, you know? Enough with me living alone so that my fishes have to live alone too! I'm tired of that" smiling she pulled him inside the store.

Naruto smiled and he let himself go.


	4. DANGO

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you've had a happy time! I'll try to post two chapters per week. Enjoy!

**DANGO**

Naruto was lying in his bed. It was a very interesting night. It wasn't planned but usually that's how the best encounters occurred. He didn't know that Karin could be so much fun. He was surprised for not finding out about her neighbor in the four years that they had been living in the same building. He remembered how she looked with that little blue shirt she was wearing, it was made of a soft material satin-like, its translucent effect showed the contour of her breast, beautiful. How could he have ignored her? He turned around in his bed watching the seven team picture that rested on a shelf. Sasuke stared right to the camera with his usual serious expression, Kakashi on the other hand looked happy and his eyes showed warmth; half of his face was covered by the mask, but by what was visible, people could tell that he was happy. Sakura looked out of the corner of her eye at Sasuke with a soft blush on her face, whilst Naruto saw how Sakura had eyes only for Sasuke.

It was curious how the smallest current things hit you up in the face waking you out of a dream. When he saw himself in the picture Naruto could answer his question. He had not noticed Karin or any other girl for that matter, because he had had eyes for Sakura only. That was why he also lost Hinata, even, when overcoming her shyness she told directly to him that she was in love with him, he could not stop paying attention to Sakura. He could not keep on feeding that obsession if he would ever want to have something serious with anyone. And…, in reality, what this obsession has left him with? Loses. Wasted time. Opportunities with girls as amazing as Hinata, lost. Would he keep on going, waiting that a god damned day, lady Sakura would be gracious enough to see him as something more than a clumsy and reliable friend?

He stood up from his bed and reached for the portrait resting on the shelf. He looked at the mirror that hang behind the shelf and confronted his image. He felt that something in him was changing. The remainder of feelings for Sakura that were stuck in him started to melt like, when the water rush to meet the drain, releasing him from a chain that had tied him for a long time. He took a deep breath and tossing his head back, eyes wide shut, he felt that little by little all the memories he had of Sakura, turned to take a new meaning. Now, they were just memories of shared moments with a good friend and nothing else. He would no longer give those, other meanings that simply did not exist. He would not think of that time that Sakura smiled at him or that other time when she asked him how he was doing, as something with a veiled romantic innuendo from her part that allowed him to feed the false hope and illusions that someday she would be more than just a friend. Not anymore.

He exhaled and looked straight to the mirror. He smiled and felt free. He lowered his eyes to the portrait, took it and held it for a while; he smiled again and proceeded to put it away in his old stuff box.

Early next morning, Naruto went to work out at the training fields in the villages' outskirt. There he found Kiba and Sasuke whom were talking about the upcoming missions.

"… Yes, I think Sai is going too, Karin also" Kiba said

"A mission was assigned to Habani too. They have not told her yet what is it about. I think is dangerous" Sasuke replied.

"They have not told us what is it about either"

"Hi Sasuke, Kiba!" Naruto approached his fellow mates.

"Hey Naruto, you know what the mission is it about?" Kiba asked

"What mission?"

"Mmmm it seems that you have not been notified yet. You have been assigned together with Sakura and Hanabi for a secret mission. You leave the village next Sunday, early in the morning"

"It is weird that two groups leave in different days without knowing what the mission is all about" Sasuke intervene.

"What other group?"

"On Monday the second group leaves. Hanabi, Kiba and Karin are part of it"

"But, that doesn't make sense. Karin is injured. I don't think that Tsunade knows that she is sending injured shinobis to risky missions" An incredulous Naruto replied.

"Oh she knows, I bet you that she herself picked them for this mission" Sasuke expected Naruto's reaction.

"I think this is a mistake. I'll speak with her." _It is weird that Tsunade assigns missions to ninjas who are not apt physically. Weird. _

"Well Naruto, meanwhile train with us" Kiba invited.

Naruto, Sasuke and Kiba trained all morning. They took a bite and split up. Sasuke was meeting Hanabi, while Kiba had to go see Shikamaru so he could give him some instructions related to the Sunday's mission. Naruto had a date and thus he had to shower first.

Well, it wasn't an actual date…, he was just going to help his neighbor buy something. Obviously she would need help; she couldn't carry an aquarium by herself… not with her arm still recovering. He felt a little stupid for been impatient; he wished for time to pass quickly that it were three o'clock already so he could meet with Karin. What did that girl had?

Naruto arrived half an hour early to the fair. He decided to take a little walk and watch the stands. There was a lot of movement; a lot of people went to the Hanami Festival to watch the blooming cherry trees. He saw Sasuke across the street with Hanabi, they truly looked happy. A little envy stung him so he decided to turn around and walk to the dangos' cart that was the nearest to the aquarium store.

He bought two brochettes to go and walked to the aquariums store door as it was already 3:00pm. He saw her from a far, she was beautiful.

"Hello Naruto! So punctual" Karin said. She took him by the hand to which he responded by receiving her hand firmly.

"Hi Karin, of course. You said three and here I am"

"Come on!" Karin invited and taking him by the hand guided him inside the store.

"You know Karin, last night you did not tell me why you changed your mind, regarding buying beta fish" Naruto said, stopping for a moment at the store's door.

"Well Naruto, is simple. They, the betas, cannot live with other fishes and, you know? Enough with me living alone so that my fishes have to live alone too! I'm tired of that" smiling she pulled him inside the store.

Naruto smiled and he let himself go.

The aquarium store was organized in a U shape. Aquariums filled the walls of the room and a little line of aquariums divided the store in half, making two parallel halls which finally connected at the end and thus making the U. As soon as they entered the store Karin released Naruto's hand and detailing each fish in each aquarium, danced through the room. She seemed like a little girl in a candy store. Her eyes shined and she looked really excited. Naruto couldn't help smiling, seeing her like that, she looked like a ballerina, walking and softly touching the aquarium surfaces, pinpointing fishes that she liked and sometimes simply enthralled by the sight of a particular colorful one.

"Oh Naruto come!" Karin shouted from the end of the store hall. Naruto approached the place where Karin was watching a special fish.

"Look this is a clownfish, aren't they beautiful? They live in symbiosis with the anemones. The anemones are those with those little arms, like octopuses and…" Karin described the fishes while she stared at them. Suddenly she looked up to find that Naruto was staring at her intensely.

Naruto was dangerously close to her. She already had noticed it, she had noted his smell, his delicious lotion with wood accents mixed with his own aroma and it was hard for Karin to focus in her fishes.

"and?" Naruto was getting closer to her almost unconsciously. He leaned on the aquarium where Karin was observing the fish, placing his right arm above his head looking down at her. If he would have wanted it he could have reach for Karin with his left arm, locking her up in a hug… but there were not enough trust yet, thus his other arm was resting in his pocket.

"…and, well" Karin blushed a little but didn't forfeit. She moved a step closer to him and continued with her fish examination. "In their tentacles they have little thorns that cut the fishes with which they do not have a symbiotic relation. But with the clownfish this just doesn't happen.

"Did you learn all of this with Orochimaru?" Naruto asked in a low tone with the sole intention to make her turn and lock eyes with him. She caught the invitation and she accepted it.

Slowly Karin turned to him and there was electricity. Their lips were getting closer, they were just a few inches away when…

"Hello, what can I do for you?" The owner of the store approached the couple interrupting the moment. Karin and Naruto separated acknowledging the existence of the intruder.

"Mr. Tanaka, how are you? Finally I'm here to take the aquarium that we have talked about"

"Ahh Miss Karin, I'm glad! It is an excellent aquarium. It includes the fishes that you see there" Mr. Tanaka pointed to the clownfish that a few moments ago the two of them were watching.

"Good!"

"It also includes some Yellow tang and Royal Gramma"

"I'm taking it now Mr. Tanaka"

"Good! Come this way"

They pay for it and settle the shipment. Mr. Tanaka assistant would take it in a cart. As soon as the aquarium was set up in the cart and the fishes were ready to travel, the three of them parted to Karin's apartment which was close enough.

The assistant and Naruto carried the aquarium up to the third floor where her apartment was. There they placed it in the living room and the assistant explained them about the cares that they should keep with the fishes.

Immediately Karin started with the aquarium installation according to Mr. Tanaka's instructions. Naruto helped her and after hours of hard work the fishes were finally in their final home.

Naruto and Karin admired their work and felt happy.

"I should have bought something to eat at the fair. I'm starving" Karin commented.

"I forgot, I think nothing happened to them" Naruto remember he bought some dangos there, and taking them out of the paper bag they were packaged in, and out of his inner jacket's pocket offered one to Karin taking the other for himself.

Karin received it whilst Naruto ate the first dango ball.

"emmm Naruto, I really appreciate the help you gave me today. It was more fun that what I thought it would be" She started moving closer to him.

"There is nothing to thank, Karin…" he move closer to her. They were going to finish what they started at the store. Now, nobody would interrupt them.

Their voices could only be heard by the two of them, it was an intimate conversation and the tone was low.

"No, on the contrary I…" Naruto could not resist the tension, and reaching for Karin hug her and kissed her.

The kiss was intense and corresponded. The dangos fell to the floor when they hugged. It was a deep and sweet kiss. It was a perfect kiss for a Hanami's festival closure. Naruto would no longer envy Sasuke, he was happy too.

The kiss ended and Karin smiled happily.

"No intruders this time"

"Karin, let's meet tomorrow, at Tanami's waterfall, I would like to show you something" He proposed Karin while he hold her and gently caressed her face.

"Ok, what time?"

"9:00a.m"

They kissed again and then Naruto said good bye and retired to his apartment.


	5. THE WATERFALL

Ok! Happy New Year! I hope you all have a great 2016!

I have been working in this chapter and I have reached the conclusion that I may need a beta reader… but I don't know how to convince one! If you are one, and you are interested in beta reading this story please PM me. If not, but you know someone that might be interested please PM too.

Enjoy!

**THE WATERFALL**

After Naruto went to his apartment, Karin reflected about what had just happened. It seemed that destiny finally smiled at her. She sat in her apartment's floor looking at the fish in her aquarium. She bought them rocks, some algae and a little cave where they could hide. She also had bought two sets of lights, one yellow and the other blue which could be switch at will. It was already night and she only had the yellow light on; no other light in her apartment was lit. Karin stretched out her arms and lay in her floor, she tilted her head so she could see the aquarium and the little fish that subtly swam in there as she remembered again the kiss they had just shared. She touched her lips; she could feel the sweet warmth of Naruto's lips. She was not going to waist the opportunity la life presented before her. She would take it decidedly as she always did. Naruto would be hers.

Meanwhile, Naruto felt a little beside himself, like if he had been on some drug. Just a couple of days ago he had been thinking about a pink-haired girl that in reality paid little attention to him and now he was completely entangled with Karin. He could not control himself when he was around her. She really waked in him some basest instincts, which were encouraged by her not been quite reticent and even encouraging. She was definitively not a shy girl. He wanted to go back to her apartment and be with her, talk to her, touch her but he held himself, nobody likes impatience, it was a lesson that he had learnt with time.

"I think I have to take a cold shower" Naruto said to himself while he removed his clothes. He felt a little disturbed and needed to think more clearly.

Both Naruto and Karin had the feeling that the next day would be one of those days, a defining day in their lives; they felt that they were going to have a happy day at last.

Next day Naruto and Karin met at 9am at the waterfall near the village as they had planned. Karin had arranged a basket with some snacks for a picnic. She was going to make the best of her date with Naruto; she didn't know when she would have the time to do it again.

Naruto left that morning heading directly towards the waterfall. He wanted to make sure all was in order. He was somewhat nervous by the approaching hour of his date and at the same time he wanted for time to speed up, so he could finally see her. She on the other hand was up early, got dressed and put on some perfume, carefully prepared the basket with some sandwiches, pastries, cookies and wine and leave her apartment. She thought that it was a little strange that they didn't leave together that morning; after all they lived next to each other. _Maybe he had something to do before. _Karin thought.

When Karin was leaving the village, she heard someone yelling out her name.

"KARIN! KARIN WAIT!" A squeaky and joyful voice could be heard yelling far off. Karin realized that it was Hanabi the one yelling out at her. She wasn't keen to see her that morning; she hoped she wouldn't ask for her picnic basket.

"Hi Hanabi. What's up, why are you so altered?"

"Karin… I'm sooo happy" Hanabi couldn't help herself.

"Tell me, what happened" Her joy was contagious and Karin was already smiling without knowing why her friend was so happy.

"Last night Sasuke proposed… and I said YES!" Karin stood there with and opened mouth but quickly corrected her reaction and congratulated Hanabi from her heart.

"Karin I'm soo excited, all of this seems like a dream, I couldn't sleep, I've already told my dad and he is happy. He said that the clan would be stronger, I can't believe my luck!"

"And when would the wedding date be?"

"June. You're invited of course!"

"mmm thank you Hanabi… although I don't know if Sasuke is ok with me being there"

"agh, do not worry about that, he will be ok" she told Karin smiling "Well Karin, I'm very glad that I could catch you, now I've got to run, I have so much to do and to prepare and so many people to tell!" And effectively Hanabi hit the ground running

Karin was happy for her friend and for the fact that she didn't notice the basket or the fact that she was leaving the village with it. She was surprised that Sasuke agreed on her being present at their wedding. Ever since the war was over, Sasuke and Karin had not spoken to each other and as he was a full-time AMBU they didn't have to do missions together.

_'__Well, we'll see what happens" _She told herself and moved on.

Naruto saw her from afar. He again felt a little besides himself. Nervousness was not a problem now…, there was only a determined feeling of peace, something sensual and animal. He never had felt that way before.

Karin finally arrived and greeted him with a soft kiss in the cheek. She thought it would be a little daring if she gave him one on the lips. She wasn't confident enough to do it…, yet. He was by the riverside near the waterfall.

"I brought some snacks in case we get hungry. We won't repeat yesterday's starvation" Karin said with a flirtatious look, straight to his eyes.

"Karin… I… invited you here because I wanted to show you something"

Karin sensed that Naruto was touching a rather serious subject for him and took the same attitude, respectfully paying attention to his words.

"Here is where I met my sensei for the first time. You know that he was murdered by pain four years ago…"

"H…ai"

"To me, Jiraya-sensei was like a father…, you know mine died when I was born. As a matter of fact, he was murdered by Madara. Also, Jiraya-sensei was my godfather, but I didn't know it until after he died. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be what I am today. Possibly I would have been overpowered by the Kyubi's hatred, as I abused his power whenever I could. If it weren't for him, Sasuke would have killed me a bunch of times too. Every time that I feel kind of nostalgic and want to feel good again, I came here to this place. Is rather comforting and calm"

"…"

"The fact that I'm telling you this is kinda off…, but I think that for some strange reason I feel good when I'm with you and… I needed to get this out of my chest. I haven't talked about this with anybody really".

She approached Naruto and stood there contemplating the waterfall.

"He liked to come here because occasionally some girls took off their clothes to swim naked. He was a damned pervert" Naruto said smiling nostalgically.

Karin sat in the grass by the river followed by Naruto a few seconds after, sitting by her side.

"You know Naruto. I get you. Although we just met for a little time now, I feel that I can trust you, more than anyone that I've met so far. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I think we are somewhat in sync. Sometime ago, when I first saw you, that day when Danzo died and I was… injured, I could feel the warmth of your chakra. Today I realize that I have wasted a lot of time not getting to know you. I should have followed my instincts and make some sort of move." Karin smiled in a warmth and sincere way, whilst she gazed the water fall.

"Don't you think that is somewhat stupid to feel this way, when we have just really met two days ago?" Naruto asked

"Well, I have been living four years in Konoha now. We may not… have met a long time ago, but I think we have lived similar experiences. We are both ninjas, represent the village in diverse missions, visit the same places, walk the same streets. Konoha has been with us, well more with you, for a long time now. So through it we have met and we have stuff in common longer than just two days, don't you think?"

Naruto looked at her a little incredulous b

"Well Ok it may be a little forced, no?" said Karin laughing "But that's how I feel. I got no other explanation"

"I don't have better, so I'll take yours." After saying this, he took off his shirt, shoes and pants and running towards the river, plunged into the water.

"Come on Karin, it is not cold!"

Karin getting out of her surprised state, got up, removed her lilac coat, black leggings, her glasses and shoes, and in her underwear she threw herself in the water and joined Naruto swimming. That morning they played like little kids in the water, cliff diving, betting who could hold their breath underwater for the longest. Then midday arrived, they had lunch with what Karin had prepared in her basket, drank some wine and talked about complex missions that they have had, the life with Orochimaru -Karin's version-, the life with the toads, -Naruto's version-, they drank and laugh all afternoon.

It was getting dark when they decided to go back to the village. While they walked by the path that would lead them to the front gate, Karin thought to herself, what would they be now to the eyes of the villagers. The gate guardians will see them together and a little tipsy. They were going to gossip. Only God knows that men are more gossiping than women.

Naruto seem to understand what Karin was thinking. So when they were approaching the gate, he took her hand.

"Now, we are together" Naruto said while he look at her in the eye. She smiled and squeezed his hand in acceptance.

That way they entered the village. Everybody that saw them understood that they were now together. They were not going to hide it. They were happy.

Walking towards their building, they realized that Sai was about to climb up the stairs.

"Hi Sai! Where are you going?"

"Hello Naruto…" He noticed that Naruto was holding Karin's hand "I was looking for Karin, but I see that you're with her…"

"…"

"Hi Karin"

"Hi Sai"

"Tsunade ordered me to tell you that she wants to see you at her office right now, she wants to assort some details for the Monday mission"

"Hai" Karin let go of Naruto's hand and before she left she gave him a quick kiss in the mouth.

"See you later" said Karin, leaving Naruto and Sai together.

"I see that you are now Karin's boyfriend. I'm glad you've finally got over Sakura-chan"

"Sai… as subtle as ever…" Naruto looked at him from the corner of his eye comically. "I never should have give you that book about emotions"

"It's been quite practical to tell you the truth" Sai smiled as he used to, a little robotically.

"Sai, you have been with Karin in missions, don't you?"

"Hai. This year Tsunade has assigned several missions to both of us"

"But, does she have a fixed group?"

"Well Naruto, you think you are her boyfriend and don't even know if she has a fixed group or not?"

Naruto turned serious

"…"

"I'm sorry it seems I have crossed some line somewhere. No, she doesn't have any fixed group. She trains alone and is assigned with the available ninja group at the moment. I think that she has been in missions with almost all of the village's shinobi. However, Tsunade makes sure that she always rotates amongst the groups and doesn't repeat missions too much with the same ninjas"

"Why baa-chan assigns her one mission when she just had an accident and her physical condition is not 100%?"

"mmm, it is weird. I don't know Naruto. Maybe she considers Karin quite tough, due to the Uzumaki blood of hers and her enviable regeneration qualities. Plus she knows how to use med ninjutsu"

"yes but, that doesn't mean that she is immortal or that it is ok that she gets to be treated as a ragged doll that is mended every time that is damaged and keeps on working"

"I think that is better said to Tsunade, Naruto, I'm not the one in power"

Naruto sighted and looked up to the sky

"I'm sorry Sai; I know you don't have a saying in this"

"It's ok, it doesn't matter. Oh by the way I think Sakura is looking for you. Remember that you have a mission with her and Hanabi next Sunday."

"I'll go search for her then. See you man"

"Bye Naruto. Oh and Congrats"

Naruto smiled and went looking for Sakura.

Naruto and Karin could not see each other later on that day. Tsunade delivered special instructions to Karin for the oncoming Monday mission and Sakura on the other hand also delayed Naruto with details of their mission.

When he finally returned to his building that night and passed Karin's apartment, he could see from the drape-less windows as she placidly slept in her bed. He had an impulse to wake her but decided that it was better to wait for next day, they still haven't discuss a lot of things that he wanted to know about her, specially how Tsunade was treating her. They would talk in the morning.


	6. SAKE

Warnings: Sasuke may appear a little OC but I think I wanted a mature Sasuke for my fic.

Thank you for your reviews, I had a lapsus and misspelled Jiraya with an H. I've corrected it now! If you see some other mistake that I've made please tell me :)

This and next chapter are short so I'll post this one today and the next tomorrow. I hope you like it waiting for your feedback!

**SAKE **

It was Saturday morning. Tsunade had called Naruto, Sakura and Hanabi to her office.

"Hanabi… congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I've been notified."

"WHAT?" Naruto and Sakura yelled at the same time.

"emmm yeah, guys I think Sasuke planned to tell you this afternoon" Hanabi replied a little embarrassed

"When is the wedding?" Sakura asked a little shocked

"June 28th"

"Why so soon?"

"Well Sakura, we've been together almost three years now, I think that you can say that it isn't a hurried decision hahaha. Additionally is a good date, otherwise my sister could not come"

"Why Hinata-chan could not come?" Naruto asked

"Well the thing is after that date, due to her state it is not convenient for her to travel"

"…Hi…Hinata is pregnant?" Sakura asked incredulous, catching the meaning of Hanabi's words.

"Hai. The baby will be born in October, our family is very happy"

Naruto and Sakura were in shock. They could not believe that Sasuke were to marry and start a new family with Hanabi. It wasn't because they didn't believe that they loved each other, but, that they felt that they were quite young. They could still remember how they dare each other to do things, who ran the fastest or could climb the trees the fastest… they remembered Hinata as that shy and coy girl with short hair that could not articulate a complete sentence before she passed out and now she was going to be a mom? Definitively they felt a little left behind and immature when compared with their friends.

The silence was getting rude as they had forgotten to congratulate Hanabi, which was hinted by Tsunade's stare, full of killing intent.

"Ah! Hanabi! Congratulations"

"Congratulations Hanabi-chan"

Both congratulate her sincerely from the heart.

"Thank you guys, you all are invited of course" Hanabi smiled.

"Well Hanabi, we wish for both of you all the happiness in the world. We can't wait to be at your wedding next to you as your friends" Tsunade intervene.

"Arigato gozaimasu" Hanabi thanked with a vow.

"Now, lets move on with the mission details. Tomorrow, Sunday, you will have the mission to head for the Lord Feudal Castle in the Land of Fire, so you can escort him back to the western castle in the early morning. You are taking the long road. If there are ambushes or renegades or any kind of danger, it is more likely that they do it by that route. As you know when taking this road you will delay the arrival to the castle a whole day. On Monday the other group, with Sai, Kiba and Karin will leave Konoha and they'll take the short route. They will arrive before you do and will inspect the area and infiltrate. It is possible that they will use henge so in any case that you smell something fishy, the password is 'tomorrow will rain' you've got it?"

"Hai"

"If there are no further questions, you can go now"

The three ninjas left the Hokage office. Sasuke was waiting for them at the building's front door.

"Hello Naruto, Sakura" Hanabi approached and kissed him hugging him by his waist.

"Hello Sasuke"

"Hi man"

"I was waiting for you, I wanted to buy you lunch. What do you say?"

The ninjas accepted and followed Sasuke to a nearby restaurant. There they ordered and Sasuke begun.

"I invite you today because I wanted to tell you something important for me. You are the closest people that I have in Konoha, my friends. As you know Hanabi has been my girlfriend for a long time and… she has accepted me as her husband. We will marry in June" Sasuke looked happy and relaxed. It seemed that he finally had found peace in his life.

"Congratulations!" Naruto stand up and hug Sasuke patting him in the back

"I'm happy for you two" Sakura hugged and kissed both Hanabi and Sasuke.

"Thank you, guys. These years have been hard for all of us and I'm glad that we could still be friends after all that happened…"

"Don't worry about that Sasuke, that is all in the past, we have to look at the future and this step that you've taken is an example of how we should live from now on, don't you think so Naruto?" The look that Sakura gave Naruto was sweet and lightly imploring. It was weird, but Naruto as clueless as he always was paid little attention to that at that time.

"Hai" Naruto said nonchalantly

"Naruto. Would you be my best man?"

"Oh…, H..ai, sure!" Surprised, Naruto smiled and scratch his head a little embarrassed by the honor that Sasuke was giving to him.

"Sakura, would you be a bridesmaid at my wedding? Hinata and Karin will be too" Asked Hanabi

"Ehh… of course Hanabi!"

"Where will you live after the wedding?" Sakura asked

"We will live at the former Uchiha district. We will build our house on what's left of my old house" Sasuke responded.

They passed the afternoon talking of several things related to the wedding, what would happen later on and the plans that they had for the party. The former team 7 felt quit grown up right now. Sakura didn't feel bad because Sasuke were to merry other girl. Ever since he came back to the village both of them knew that they will only be friends from that moment on and they had remained so.

However from a while back she had started to see Naruto with different eyes. She wasn't sure about what it was that she really felt, it was confusing. She tried to avoid him, she refused all the invitations, the dates that he persistently made her, but still she felt slightly attracted to Naruto. On Naruto's part, he had not noticed any change in Sakura's behavior or demeanor, he only perceived the same tiring Sakura, turning down on him, stubbing off his feelings with her refusals, he definitely was not a man of subtlety.

Meanwhile in another side of the village, Karin had noticed that, that day would be her last day off and it will also be Naruto's last day off too. She didn't know when would she see him again after next Monday due to her unending missions… maybe if she injured herself more often she would have more free time… she shook her head to that absurd thought and thought that the best she could do to finish the day was to surprise Naruto as he did with her some nights ago with a surprise dinner at her home. Thus she went that morning to the market and bought all the ingredients to make a delicious dinner.

She thought about preparing ramen but wouldn't that be what Naruto's always ate? Plus it wasn't the healthiest food you could think off. Maybe she could cook something more traditional and thus bought some white rice, chicken breast, paprika, chinese roots, soy sauce, some codfish, scallion, pickles, coriander, tofu, shiitake, oranges and yogurt.

When she arrived home it was four o'clock in the afternoon, she feed her fish and started to prepare the food for dinner. She was going slow as she wasn't very experienced with the cooking thing and so decided to start early. She prepared the rice, whilst the chicken breast cooked to make a broth and fixed the codfish. Some time passed when she heard Naruto's voice outside her building. It was rather cheerful, he occasionally laugh. She leave her apartment to see him and noticed that he was talking to Sakura quite amicably, both of them laughing and speaking out loud while Sakura caressed his arm, looking slightly blushed. Then they parted.

Karin felt stupid. She felt stupid waiting for him, cooking for him while he was having fun with other girls. Filled with jealousy she turn off the stove and dropped everything, leaving her apartment by jumping through the back window so she could avoid bumping into Naruto that was climbing up the stairs. Jumping on the roofs of Konoha she noticed that the bar was almost empty. It was still early. She decided that she needed a drink.

She was not much of a drinker, but she felt furious and maybe some sake will calm her nerves. At the bar there was Shizune. She was waiting for Tsunade to wake up from her alcohol induced sleep.

"Karin! What are you doing here?"

Everybody could see from a mile away that Karin was furious. It was something she could not hide behind her ninja abilities.

"Yeah…, I don't like to sound rude Shizune-sama, but it is none of your business"

"Well, well. Lady Karin is mad… could I know why? Naruto did something stupid?"

Karin froze. Now, the entire village knew that they were going out?

"It seems that he did hahahaha" Shizune was a little drunk.

"Waiter please I need some Sake"

The waiter served her the sake bottle with his little saucer. Karin took the first zip, followed by a second and a third.

"Slow down Karin otherwise you will not be able to kiss Naruto good night hahaahah"

Karin felt that the anger was slipping away and started to think a little clearer. The alcohol soothed her. Her face showed it, she was calm and sad. Shizune noticing the change took pity on the girl.

"Oh come on Karin. Naruto is a nice guy, whatever he did I'm sure that he did it without bad intentions. Have you talked to him about whatever it is that upset you?"

"Well…."

"I think that you should start there. Things aren't always what they seem. You have to check always people's intentions otherwise you'll start judging things that may have other meanings"

"I don't know Shizune-sama" Karin started to think straight. Maybe she had acted irrationally. Sakura after all was Naruto's best friend and nothing more. Everybody knew that she didn't give him the hour of the day.

"Whatever it was, it may have a different interpretation, other than the one you had perhaps?"

"…maybe…" Karin started to give in to Shizune's point

"Well… what are you waiting for? Go and check. I bet a bottle of sake that it was not what you thought it was"

"ummm Shizune-sama you should quit for the night if you want to leave the room with some dignity" Karin stood up , paid her drinks while she heard Shizune yelling something like:

"Goddamn you Karin, off course I'll leave with dignity *hic*" Shizune screamed at the top of her lungs hysterically and at the same time comically from the bottom of the bar.

The Sake had leaved her a little tipsy. She quickly walked back to her apartment. It wasn't too late to finish dinner. Maybe while eating it she could ask Naruto for her relationship with Sakura and settle the facts once and for all.

She arrived at her apartment turned on the lights and put the pots back onto the stove. Then she headed to Naruto's door.

"Hi! Please come I have a surprise for you" Karin smiled. She was going to find out that night about Naruto real feelings for Sakura.


	7. DESIRE

Dear Guest: Thank you for your review! Well these first chapters will be setting the bases of the fic (It will be long) so you may think that sometimes things are rushing BUT those things are not what I want to point out or achieve with the fic. The plot will develop some five chapters from now; you will discover later on I promise.

I started to use more dialog and let people imagine the emotions behind them. Of course if I want something to be understood in a certain way I will specify. However I'm trying my best for the lines to express the personality of the characters, it may feel a little OC sometimes but I'm thinking of a more mature version of the characters. The story as I'm imagining it is centered mostly in Karin and a little less on Naruto but I didn't want to burden it by been over analytic at first so I implemented a lot dialogue and continuum developments up to a point where things will unravel.

This chapter has a lemon so you are warned.

**DESIRE**

"Hi!, Please come I have a surprise for you"

"Karin, are you drunk?"

"Just a little. I have some drinks with a friend. I'm fine don't you worry"

Naruto followed Karin to her apartment. There were a lot of ingredients at her table and smelled particularly good.

"Well now that I don't know when we'll see each other, I wanted to pay back the favor and cook dinner this time"

"You didn't have to bother Karin, I wasn't expecting anything in return"

"Then… help me with the cooking" Karin said with a flirtatious smile on her face to which Naruto responded by approaching and hugging her from behind while she cut some mushrooms.

"What do you want me to do?"

"You can start with the fish"

Naruto couldn't help it and kiss her in her neck; Karin shook a little to the touch of his lips. He released her from his embrace and started to fix the fish.

Karin hadn't forgotten about her mission that night. She will know what Naruto really felt for Sakura.

"So how was your day?"

"Well, guess what, Hanabi is getting married to Sasuke! Who would have thought that the teme would be settling so soon?"

"Hanabi is a very special and strong girl. Maybe he was attracted to her for that. Plus they get along quite well"

"How long have you known Hanabi? Are you friends?"

"She is the only friend that I've got here. We had a blast the first year after the war. But… you know what happened after the first year"

"Sasuke"

"Correct! So well… it was difficult to ask her for some time being AMBU the two of them. Nevertheless we are good friends"

"Sasuke invited us for lunch today and then we had some drinks. I'll be his best man at his wedding. Ah Hanabi mentioned that you will be one of her bridesmaids"

"Yeah I forgot to tell you. Yesterday before leaving Konoha, Hanabi told me everything. Hey and…, what do you mean by 'us'?"

"Sakura and I. Tsunade made us stay all morning at her office explaining tomorrow's mission. Sakura and Hanabi are going with me"

"I see…"

Food was ready. Rice, chicken breast clear soup with some paprika and Chinese roots, codfish with soy sauce, pickles, fried tofu with mushrooms and oranges with yogurt for dessert.

"You've planed this quite well"

"Thank you for helping prepare it"

"Enjoy!" the couple said at the same time.

While they ate Karin turned serious and stared at Naruto like when you want to ask something to somebody but you don't made up your mind to do it. Naruto noticed it.

"Tell me what you're thinking"

Karin lower her plate and put the chopsticks away and started to gather all the diplomatic energy that she had to ask something that she felt was rather serious.

"Naruto… you…"

"Yes?"

"What do you feel for Sakura?" Karin exhaled and waited impatiently for his reply.

Naruto lower his plate and chopsticks too. He turned serious. Karin feared that maybe he would tell her that he was mixed up, confused, that he didn't know what he felt, that she should give him some time or whatever excuse there was to avoid tell her the truth.

"Since I've met you Karin, I can safely say that I don't feel anything for Sakura. Please don't feel insecure because of her. To me she is only a friend a shinobi collegue but she will never be anything more than that"

Shizune was definitively right the whole time, even drunk she gave good advice. The determination and sincerity with what Naruto had spoken gave Karin the certainty that he was telling the truth. She took a deep breath, smiled and continued eating her dinner. Naruto followed suit.

"Why do you ask?"

"Amm…, I saw you arrive a while ago and noted that Sakura… was kinda strange."

"Hahahah, I'm sure it was the sake that we drank. Don't worry she always do that when she drinks"

The dinner went by normally from that moment on. Karin was feeling much better and congratulated herself for not making a show and ask things civilly. All had been cleared without drama.

"Let me serve you the dessert. Oranges and yogurt, hope you like it" Karin stood up

"I think we should eat it there" Karin pointed at the floor in front of the aquarium. "It has a better view"

Naruto accepted the proposal and sat in front of the aquarium. Karin turned off the roof light and lit the blue aquarium light and sat beside Naruto with the dessert.

"They look incredible with the blue light, don't you think so?" she said while taking one orange slice "The color contrast makes them fluorescent under that light"

Naruto averted his eyes from the aquarium and fixed his gaze in Karin's face. She had a little yogurt in her lower lip; almost unconsciously he got close to her enough to softly remove it with his finger tip. It was probably the sake but he felt that his self-restraint was a little loose and his instincts were taking control. There was a silence and a little tension clouded the ambiance.

Karin saw something in Naruto's eyes… it was desire. She didn't fear that look in men's eyes, it was not the first time that she face it. However, she also saw restraint. She knew that he was not going to take the first step, perhaps out of fear to rejection or to be considered as taking things too fast, after all they just had been seeing each other for some three days at most. All of this was written in Naruto's eyes.

But Karin desired it too. It was very difficult to resist, even more when so much time had passed since she were intimate with someone. She gave it a thought and made up her mind. She will yield to her desires. She just had to let him know that she wanted it too. She took off her glasses and sitting across him started to slowly unzip her shirt while staring right into his eyes, trying to make him understand that he could make his move. The aquarium tenuous light made his white skin glow somewhat phosphorescent, looking like a fairy.

When Naruto saw this, he couldn't stop himself any longer. He reached out to her taking her by her hips imprisoning her against the floor kissing her intensely. They started to undress each other rapidly. They needed that longed first physical contact, skin to skin.

Naruto caressed her hips and her thighs. When there was nothing but their underwear, among panting and heavy breathing he managed with great effort to stop and ask her in a hoarse whisper

"are you sure beautiful?"

"hai" Karin answered softly, kissing him even more intensely and pressing against him.

He took her astride to the bed. There they got rid of the final pieces of clothes, they were naked and excited. Naruto's member, big and wet brushed against Karin. She wanted him, wanted him in. Karin contorted and moved so Naruto's member met her entrance. He couldn't resist it any longer and penetrate her roughly. Karin moaned and continued doing so while he was in her.

They felt quite good together; it wasn't the first time for them but it was the first time they do it with someone they loved. The swaying movements were getting faster while the two of them devoured each other with kisses. Naruto squeezed Karin's breasts, bit her nipples, kissed her neck, fondled her, pressed her against him so he could penetrate her deeper and deeper. She jailed him with her thighs, scratched his back and neck and couldn't help biting his lower lip by the great pleasure he was giving her. She felt whole. Suddenly she felt the waves of pleasure that preceded her orgasm concentrating on her belly; it was approaching and couldn't help the moans of pleasure that were crowding her throat. Naruto was close too but he wanted to extend the moment as much as he could. He shifted their positions and now she was on top of him.

They were staring at each other. Karin moving on top of Naruto controlled the situation. He could see how she rode on him senseless, her red hair sprawling on her back and chest while she bit her lips enjoying the pleasure. She had her first orgasm there; he hadn't gotten there so he flipped her unapologetically fast. He was now on top, Karin whispered I love yous whilst Naruto speed up reaching both to the climax, the second time for Karin.

He came inside her. Karin felt as butterflies quickly spread out through her belly, almost hallucinating, the feelings the memories that were created that night had an orange flavor and were blue colored. That's how they always would remember it. Naruto hugged her tight a few minutes before he came out of her, softly whispering and inaudible I love you in her ear and kissing her again. Both of them fall to the embrace of Morpheus just a couple of minutes after, defeated by the love making, naked on her bed.


	8. BEFORE WE LEAVE

**R&amp;R :)**

**BEFORE WE LEAVE **

Naruto opened his eyes and didn't recognize where he was. However, a couple of seconds later he realized that he was at Karin's apartment. He tilted his head and could see that she was sleeping placidly on his chest. He caressed her face, going through some bright red bangs with his fingers. When he moved them they release a distinctive rose's scent. He really didn't want to leave her, it was the very first time that he didn't want to go on missions and stay in the village. It was not morning yet, but he had to get up and shower before meeting Sakura and Hanabi. With utmost care he slid off under Karin trying not to wake her up. He sat at the bed edge and thought that what had happened the night before felt like a dream, but her fair presence by his side broke that line of thought. They did had been together that night and had a great time, he had never felt so connected to someone neither he had felt such a strong chemistry.

Without making any noise as a true ninja, he picked up his clothes and quickly got dressed. Karin was sleeping on her bed completely naked with her hair sprawled on her pillow. Seeing her in that state made him want to take his clothes off again, wake her up and make love furiously to her but… duty called. Before he left he stopped to gaze at her again, gave her a swift kiss on her lips, gently touching them with her fingertips afterwards.

"I'll see you soon" Naruto said softly and left heading to his apartment.

Karin woke up and the sun was already up. She fumbled a little on her bed and noticed that she was alone. That scared her. Didn't she spend the night with Naruto? Where was he? Did she imagine everything and if so why was she naked? She stood up without thinking too much about her naked self and left the apartment running, leaving the door open. Karin enter thought the balcony to Naruto's apartment and heard the shower's water running in the bathroom.

"Naruto?"

"Karin? What are you doing here? How did you enter?" Naruto questioned his voice muffled by the bathroom door. Karin opened the door and got in.

Naruto was showering but could not quite see well enough due to the steam.

"Did you think that you could go without saying goodbye?" Karin said playfully while standing in front of the glass partition that separated the shower from the rest of the room. Naruto slid open the partition door to meet the apparition of a naked Karin standing in front of him with her hands in her waist almost challenging him. Running a little she bridged the distance that separated them and smiling from ear to ear she jumped to his arms. He received her with a reflex movement. Karin surrounded Naruto with her legs, leaning her forehead to his and staring right into his eyes.

"I didn't want to wake you"

"You should" Karin gave him quick kisses. Naruto reacted, deepening her kiss while Karin entangled her hands in his hair. The water slid throughout their bodies making the caresses easier.

Naruto sense of duty told him that it was getting late. "Beautiful, I can't stay…, I got a mission" Naruto said while he licked her shoulders and kissed her neck. His words contradicted his desires.

"Just a few more minutes"

They continued kissing and caressing each other as if there was no tomorrow. Naruto deposited Karin on a ledge so he could have more control of the situation, steading himself so they wouldn't fell. Naruto entered her again, and by doing so a wave of pleasure and energy roamed his body. This time he did it slower that the night before to which Karin responded with a deep moan, his member was fairly big and if she were not to be exited it could hurt her, but she was exited and received it with pleasure. The water was the third guest of this couple, involving them from head to toe while they were making love. Naruto pressed against Karin, caressing her thighs, her breast, her face, she kissed his marked chest, scratched his back, slid her hands along his arms, kissed and the pleasure that they felt increased by moments until they could not resist any more and exploded like fireworks.

Naruto hold her for a while after they finished. Then he withdrew from her. He felt so good; he didn't want to go anywhere. She corresponded hugging him while she lowered her legs, leaning her head against his chest. In spite of their bodily desires they finally separated and looked at each other's eyes with love and satisfied desire. Naruto came out of the shower and started getting dressed. Karin stayed a little longer under the water. When she came out, wrapped in a towel, Naruto was fully dress even he had made coffee and toasts.

"I think we'll see each other the day after tomorrow" Naruto said "We have to escort the Feudal Lord to the eastern castle. We'll be going by the long road and you'll by the short. So I think we'll meet in a day and a half or two… maybe you'll have henge, but still I'll know who you are"

"Oh yeah?, how?"

Naruto smiled. There were a thousand ways to know who Karin was even if she was in henge. The scent of roses in her hair, or vanilla in her body or the strength of her gaze or her special chakra but he wasn't going to tell her all the ways he could identify her by.

"You'll see"

Karin sat in Naruto's bed drying her hair with a towel.

"I'll have to go" Although Naruto was saying it he stood there watching the spectacle that was Karin. She raised her eyes, leave the towel with which she was drying her hair besides her and sweetly hug Naruto to later kissing him on the lips.

"We'll see in two days then" He reciprocated her hug and kiss her in the top of her head as she was shorter than him.

Naruto leave the apartment not without giving a last look at her girlfriend.

"Naruto!" a pink haired girl was yelling. "You're late!"

"Hehehe sheshh I'm sorry Sakura-chan" He said embarrassingly scratching his head

"What you were doing, you were sleeping don't you?"

Naruto remembered all that had happened and smiled sideways "Y..es… I didn't realize I was sleeping late… I'm sorry Sakura-chan. Ok… Now, let's go!" said Naruto eluding further conversation.

"Hanabi hasn't arrived either" Said an annoyed Sakura

"SAKURA! NARUTO! WAIT!" in the distance a small figure approached them. It was Hanabi.

"I'm sorry guys Sasuke delayed me a little" said Hanabi smiling and sporting a faint blush.

Naruto understood why Hanabi was delayed too. It seemed that that night a lot of people were happy.

"Well, don't waste any more time, we're late! Come on!" Sakura was after all in a good mood although not for the same reasons as Hanabi and Naruto's.

"Hai!" Both shinobis responded heading for the Feudal Lord's castle.

Karin sipped from her cup of coffee and ate some toast before going back to her apartment. She returned wrapped around in a towel that she took from her boyfriend's bathroom. She wasn't concern about the possibility of being seen naked. She only had Naruto as her neighbor and they lived in the tallest building around, no others been taller. She noticed that in her outburst she had left the door open.

'_Well I left the door open…, I think I'm going insane'_ Karin though

She entered her apartment changed and pick up the mess from the night before. Definitively she could say that she was positively in love with Naruto. It was long ago since the last time she felt that way. She felt her feelings were reciprocated, she felt taking care of, happy. Contrary to the way she felt when she was with Sasuke; ignored, uncared for and obsessive. This time it was going to be different and she would do anything so it would go that way.

A couple of hours later after Naruto left, Sai arrived to Karin's apartment. She had already cleaned up everything; there were not a trace that she had spent the night with someone.

"Hello Karin"

"Hi Sai"

"Karin, Hokage-sama just summoned us to go over tomorrow's mission"

"Got it, let's go"

Karin and Sai took off jumping on the roofs of the neighboring houses. While they were heading towards the Hokage's building, Sai wanted to test if his social and emotional abilities had improved as he had been practicing the tricks and techniques of that book of his.

"Emm Karin, can I tell you something?"

"Su..re, yes…, tell me"

"I'm glad that you're now with Naruto. Sakura is a great kunoichi but she hasn't been good to him. He deserves someone who appreciates him. He is a loyal person and I think he deserves the same"

"You don't think I'm loyal?"

"No! That's not what I meant! '_It seems that I don't master the book's technics yet'_. What I meant was that I think that he is a loyal guy and he deserves to be treated the same way and I think you are the right one for that"

"You really think so?"

"Yes, you have worked very hard for Konoha these past few years. We've all seeing it"

"Thank you Sai" She offered him a sincere smile. "However I think not all of you…"

"You mean Tsunade-sama?"

Karin looked at him with affirmation written in her eyes, but enough awareness to keep her mouth shut.

"She is tough because she thinks you are very strong you know, but she cares for you"

"…"

Soon they arrived to the Hokage's office. There were Kiba, Shizune and Tsunade waiting for them.

"Karin, Sai. Good, you arrived. Now we can start the meeting." Tsunade said with a military tone "The first group that will escort the Feudal Lord from the castle that he is in right now has left today. Naruto, Hanabi and Sakura parted together by the long road. While they arrive there and escort the Feudal Lord to his new location, you will go through the short road and infiltrate in the eastern castle. Use henge or whatever disguise or stealth technique you master, and check that there isn't weird things going on. In case that you doubt about the identity of any of your mates the code is "tomorrow will rain". As soon as you are certain that there isn't any danger, meet with the other team at the castle entrance. Make sure that your fellow shinobi be who they claim to be. Any questions?" Tsunade finished her military diatribe.

"After the Feudal Lord finally arrives to the castle, we will have to keep him safe?" Sai asked.

"No. As soon as it is a fact that the Feudal is safe and sound in the castle, his private guards will take care of the security. After that you will return to the village. Understood?"

"Hai!" The three shinobis answered in unison

"You can go now"

The three of them left the room. Outside the office they stopped and chatted a little

"Well it seems that I'll see you both tomorrow, I'll go pack akamaru's food." Kiba left leaving Sai and Karin in the hallway. Sai was on his way out too.

"Sai…" Karin stopped to think about the right words to say. "Thank you for your trust" She smiled warmly "Oh and don't worry about Naruto, he will be fine with me" Karin said in a cheeky and overconfident tone.

Sai nodded and smiled back.

"See you tomorrow Karin"

"Hai"

The three ninjas left early in the morning the next day heading for the eastern castle. One of them couldn't wait for time to fly by.


	9. DOUBTS

Hi everyone! Yes I've noticed the mistake with the ANBU thing. I'll fix it soon :)

Meanwhile I would like to know if you can recommend some fics that involve good birthing writing. I'm thinking in a whole new fic with that but would like to read some stories with good birthing scenes to know what could work.

This is me trying to write a fighting scene, hope you like it!.

**DOUBTS**

Since Naruto, Hanabi and Sakura left Konoha that morning, the later hadn't taken her eyes off of Naruto. Someway he seemed taller, confident, more like a man than a boy, his wide shoulders and his strong arms… Sakura could not take her eyes off of him while they jumped through the trees. He was leading the group while the two kunoichis flanked two steps behind him. Hanabi could not avoid noticing about Sakura's glances and stares.

It was late at night when this shinobi group arrived where the feudal was staying. They decided to rest, camping in the castle grounds near the river. There was no moon that night thus darkness flooded the land.

"Naruto, I'll take the first watch"

"Ok, Hanabi"

"We'll take turns every couple hours, I'll take the last" Sakura said

"Hai"

Hanabi walked away from the couple, but not enough to stop watching what would happen next. Naruto lit the fire and went fishing in the river so they could have something to eat. Meanwhile Sakura was staring at him through the crackling flames. He really had become a catch. She stood up and got near where he was.

"Do you need help?"

"No, Sakura-chan I've got plenty. Just a couple more and we'll be set up" Naruto said carelessly watching at the river.

"Come on Naruto, I think I can fish them quicker than you"

"Hahahah I don´t think so…, I'm the best at fishing… plus there is no moon so is harder you know?" Naruto said it while watching Sakura take out her fishing pole.

"Well we'll see about that" Sakura whispered whilst winking mischievously at Naruto whom found that attitude strange coming from Sakura but didn't give it a second though.

Sakura got dangerously near Naruto and hooking up some bait she started fishing throwing it to the river. From where Hanabi was standing it wasn't possible to observe nothing more than two silhouettes -that could be distinguished from the dark night only by the cracking and dancing flames of the fire-, very close to each other, laughing while they fished.

"…hahaha still remember how Sasuke couldn't climb the threes" Naruto mocked.

"Hahahah yes I know! But you couldn't either" responded Sakura

"Pfff" Naruto snort "at first…" both shinobis looked at each other and continued with the smiles and laughs. Suddenly Sakura's pole started pulling her to the river as a sign that a fish had bite the bait.

"Sakura, a fish bite, don't let it go!" An excited Naruto shouted.

"Wahhh is very strong I can't pull it out!" Sakura struggled with the fishing pole.

Although Sakura was one of the strongest kunoichis in the world, she wasn't going to let this opportunity pass and feigned helplessness, something that a very distracted and excited Naruto failed to notice.

"Don't pull that hard, you can break the pole, look you have to pull this way…" Naruto surrounded Sakuras hands with his, holding the pole by hugging her from behind.

"Look, you have to do it this way, with a specific strength so the fish remain hooked. If you pull very hard, the pole can break or the fish scape" Sakura released one of her hands from his grasp, switching places with his hand so he could have a better hold of the pole. At the same time with her now free hand started caressing his arm softly. At this Naruto stopped paying attention to the fish and looked down, his eyes clashing with Sakura's gaze who was tilting her head slightly upwards. It was very clear that she was flirting with him. What the hell was happening lately?, Now all of the sudden Sakura was paying attention to him, precisely when he was dating another girl?

For a minute Naruto was haunted by her gaze. Her green eyes shone for him in a way that he had not seen before and suddenly feeling that all the things that he had felt for her all of those years, that he thought were buried, were resurfacing again.

"Cof, cof" Hanabi interrupted "I think is your turn Naruto" while she said the last sentence she dedicated a very accusatory glance at him.

"Emmm… h..ai" Naruto left Sakura's side a little embarrassed and left to take the second watch.

Sakura and Hanabi finished with the fishing and cooked dinner.

"Well this is Naruto's dinner"

"Don't worry I'll take that to him"

"But… wait!" Hanabi couldn't stop Sakura from taking the dish and dart towards Naruto who was keeping watch.

"Look Naruto here's your dinner. Hope it's good" Sakura said with the sweetest voice she could master.

Naruto in confusion took the plate "Tha..nk you Sakura-chan"

She returned to Hanabi and rested for the remaining of the night before it was her turn to keep watch. Before dawn the three shinobi went to meet with the Feudal heading for the eastern castle.

* * *

Kiba, Sai and Karin had already arrived to the eastern castle. Up until that moment nothing weird had happened nor had they found renegade shinobis. The three shinobi were hiding in the bushes near the castle, watching for any weirdness or suspicious behavior from the feudal's loyal men who surrounded it and who made up his private guard.

"Karin, how many people are inside the castle?"

Karin using his sensorial abilities detected that there were some hidden ninjas in the top floor of the building.

"There are three hidden ninjas at the top floor. I don't know if they're friends of foes. I think is time to use henge"

Karin and Kiba transformed using henge into ninjas with the Feudal Lord private guard uniform. That way they could know with certainty if the hidden ninjas were part of them or against them.

"Good luck, guys" Sai wished for them.

Meanwhile, Sai drew a giant eagle, mounted on top of it and flew over the perimeter. Karin and Kiba started moving towards the castle entrance.

"Stop!" The guard that was post at the right side of the entrance door shouted. "Where do you think you are going?"

"We're going to inspect the north tower. Guard shift"

"This was not notified by the boss" the guard responded with suspicion in his voice

"It is a last minute order!" Kiba shouted with conviction.

"If you don't let us in to inspect the tower and something happens, you will be personally blamed for whatever could happen to the Feudal Lord that will be arriving at any minute now!" Karin pressed.

"O..k…, Hanya go with them, watch them" a reluctant and suspicious guard forfeited.

"Hai"

"Well, we're in" Karin and Kiba thought. The three ninjas got in followed by Akamaru and swiftly started to run towards the top floor.

"Hey! That's not the way to north tower! STOPP!

The castle walls were very tick and it seemed that nobody heard him scream. Karin and Kiba quickly shut Hanya's mouth and restricted his movements with some ropes. They left him on the mezzanine and kept on climbing the stairs. As soon as they arrived to the room where Karin had felt the presence of the three hidden ninjas, Akamaru barked.

"There are more than three people in there"

"I can only feel three chakra signatures" Karin whispered.

"let's get in"

Karin and Kiba entered the room holding their kunais, all guns blazing. In the room there were two men with swords.

"Who are you?" Kiba growled

"We are Lord Feudal's advisers" A shocked young man responded "But… How come you don't recognize us?, aren't you guards? Yo…u… are IMPOSTORS! GUARDS, GUARDS, INTRUDERSSS!"

"SHUT UP! Just tell us who are you hiding here?" Kiba shouted.

"What are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about!" the oldest man intervened somewhat nervously.

"We know they are here. Or they go out…, or we get them out!"

"GATZUGA!"

Kiba's technique got the infiltrated ninjas out of their hiding. They could hear in the distance as the guards were rushing through the stairs to get to that room. The advisers taking advantage by the dust that Kiba's technique unsettle onto a cloud, escaped through a hall hidden in the wall, were some moments ago the infiltrated ninjas where hiding.

The three shinobis revealed themselves. They had a clear numerical advantage. They were 3 vs. 2 and Karin was no taijutsu specialist.

"What are you doing here?"

The shinobi didn't answer. They had no noticeable village affiliation. They were hired ninjas, mercenaries, renegades. It wasn't long before Karin asked when they were being attacked. Kiba and Karin responded defending themselves with their kunai and explosive seals.

"Damn you! Die!" Kiba transformed into a giant two-headed dog using the Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf. He charged against the renegades who crashed against the bottom wall.

"Good Kiba!"

"Those three will not stop us"

"The Lord Feudal arrived!" the guards surrounding the castle shouted from the outside. At hearing this, the renegades got up and jumped through the window.

"Fuck!" Karin and Kiba followed them kunais and ninja stars blazing

The renegades multiplied with a shadow clone jutsu, making the attack even harder, increasing the energy loss.

"But what do we have here, three scumbags that will meet their creator today"

"Naruto!" Karin shouted joyfully

From the sky rained animals and explosive seals. Sai was there to reinforce the defense. The renegades attacked with kunais, fists and kicks but were met and countered attacked immediately by the konoha's shinobis. The explosions created a huge smoke and dust cloud, limiting the vision of all the warriors endangering everyone.

"Byakugan!" Hanabi observed where the real ninjas were but when she was going to tell Naruto about it, something hit her from behind leaving her unconscious.

"Watch out, some of them don't have chackra signatures!" Karin shouted

Sai and Kiba were busy dispelling the renegade's clones, while Hanabi was unconscious and Sakura was protecting the Feudal Lord from the flying Kunais and explosive tags that fell nearby. Naruto on the other hand was kicking the shit out of the real ninjas. Everything was a confusion of dust and kunais when suddenly…

"AHHH NARUTO!" It was Karin. One of the advisers that didn't hold a chakra signature had ambushed her and had her by the neck pointing a kunai to her carotid. At the same time a strange seal of chackra was extending from the hands of the advisor to Karin's body restricting her movements. She could not breathe.

At the same time that this was happening Sakura was also attacked by the other adviser. This time Naruto had to pick who to help.

"NARUTO HELP…. THE FEUDAL IS UNPROTECTED!" Sakura shouted whilst she was been held by the other adviser, likewise sealing her chakra so she could not use her super strength. The grip cut her breathing. Suffocated and stressed she begged with her eyes for help to Naruto.

Naruto doubted for a second who should he help first. Will he help Sakura, her friend since childhood and her eternal platonic, love interest or Karin her current girlfriend?

"Kage bunshin no jutsu" Naruto made three clones of himself, sending one where Karin was and the other two where the feudal was left unprotected.

"Die you bastard!" Naruto the original shouted. With his lighting speed, passed on to him by his father, he almost teleported to where Sakura was dishing it out with full force at the adviser's forehead leaving him immediately unconscious.

The clone that Naruto sent to where Karin was, arrived a little too late, as Karin was already released from the grip of the renegade jutsu by Sai who liberated an ink lion defeating the other adviser that had her almost sealed all together.

"Tha..nk you Sai" Karin could barely say to Sai, gasping for air. She was seriously tired and was in all fours on the floor. Sai help her stand up.

"No problem" Sai responded smiling at her kindly. When this was happening, Naruto shadow clone appeared.

"Naruto! The Feudal!" Sai noted

"He is ok. Wait a moment"

"?"

"The code"

"Tomorrow will rain" the three of them said it at the same time

"Ok, let's go now to meet him"

"amm Karin how are you?" Naruto's clone asked distractedly

"I'm ok" Karin responded with a tired smile.

Sakura was on the floor. Naruto the original, was by her side on his knees, asking her in a very interested and worried way if she was ok. To which she responded gasping for air that she was ok with an intimate stare. This scene was met by Karin with a little surprise. Was Naruto worrying a little too much about Sakura? '_No'_ she thought '_this is the way that they roll'_ she answered herself convincing that that's how best friends deal with each other. It couldn't be true that Naruto had lied to her and still felt things for Sakura.

The fight finished with the renegades and fake advisers flying in Sai's ink eagles with Konoha as their destination. They would be interrogated by the Ibiki and Yamanaka's teams.

Karin and Sakura were feeling better and Hanabi came back to herself. Soon the Feudal Lord's Guard of the eastern castle took over the security and with an "ok and thank you" for the service they had provided, they parted back to Konoha.

Naruto headed the group been followed close by Sakura and Kiba whilst Hanabi and Karin were at the back. Karin was pensive. Why did Naruto decided to help Sakura himself using his super speed to get to her, but with her he had sent a simple clone with average speed, that didn't even get to help her? And why he had spoken to Sakura in such an… intimate way when she was free from that ninja's grip? All those thoughts and many others started to spite her while she was looking at the two of them from her position at the back of the group. Hanabi on the other hand perceived Karin's expression and she understood her doubts… it was really necessary to share what she thought she saw the night before? No, it was better not to. She could have misunderstood those stares and didn't want to make unnecessary drama for something that it may never existed. The best was not to feed those doubts or thoughts that Karin may have.

Due to the fact that Karin and Hanabi were on the back, Naruto, Sakura and Kiba couldn't see when a few messenger ninjas from Konoha intercepted Karin in a three branch.

"Karin stop"

"Ah? What's up?"

"Hokage-sama had decided that you must go on to another mission. You have to carry this scroll to the border between the land of fire and the hidden rain village"

"But is not fair!" Hanabi protested "We've just finished a very dangerous mission, Karin lost too much chakra, and she was even attacked!"

"Those are the Hokage's orders Hanabi-sama, you don't argue them"

"It's ok Hanabi, it's no biggie" Karin stoically grab the scroll from the messenger's hands and headed towards the border.

"Karin…" Hanabi watched how her friend disappeared between the threes. She really never had seen her complain for the constant missions that were assigned to her, one after the other without a break. She clenched her fists at the realization that the same thing happened with Sasuke. She couldn't let that keep happening otherwise she would never see Sasuke.

Hanabi and the messengers from Konoha continued their way back to the village. Soon they would catch up Naruto, Sakura and Kiba that had advance quite a trail. Naruto hadn't noticed Karin's absence as he was quite focused on Sakura's conversation, which in turn upset Hanabi.

Those who were on the front naturally arrived first to the village's door. They waited a few minutes for those on the back.

"ah? Where is Karin?" Naruto asked noticing her absence.

"Pfff, you've just notice until now that she didn't come with us? But what a boyfriend you are…" Hanabi responded in a hurtful and sarcastic tone.

Sakura didn't know that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Hanabi's rant left her with her mouth and eyes wide open.

"how come? Where is Karin?" Naruto started to get mad.

Hanabi stared into his eyes without saying a word.

"Hokage-sama ordered for her to make another mission Naruto" one of the messengers intervene.

"But we just had a very dangerous mission!"

"Hokage's orders, you're no one to discuss them Naruto"

"What was the mission?"

"You don't have to know…"

"She had to take a scroll to the border with the hidden rain village, Naruto" Hanabi said with a tone between pissed and cold. "What are you gonna do now? Stay and eat dangos with Sakura?" She said in a sarcastic way.

The darts had landed on the right place. The two of them, Sakura and Naruto felt alluded and lowered their eyes. They felt kinda guilty. Hanabi meanwhile pierce them with her needled eyes, accusing them.

"I'll go find her"

"You're going nowhere Naruto"

"Sasuke!"

"We have an ANBU mission"

"But…"

"But nothing. Karin can do that simple mission in a couple of hours. She will be back by dinner time. The mission assigned to us is important" Sasuke looked at Naruto imposing, he was not kidding about the mission that he was talking about.

"Come on, Naruto"

"H..ai" Naruto followed Sasuke reluctantly. As soon as they'll finish with whatever mission ANBU had assigned to them he would go and meet Karin, wherever she were. He would detect her position turning into senin mode or whatever. He hadn't evaluated how he had treated his girlfriend that day. He felt a little confused by the way Sakura had talked to him. He had to see Karin no matter what.

Meanwhile this was happening, Karin was heading for the border. Who would be receiving this message? Why Tsunade, again, assigned her mission on top of mission? And why did Naruto hadn't paid attention to her the whole day? She wasn't feeling quite energetic but even so she kept a stable pace. She had had a rough day.

"Well, well, but how do we have here…. Hahahah but, Karin, now they have you as their messenger? Who would have known."

"Suigetsu!"

"Long time no see. But look at how much you've grown…, Karin"


	10. OLD FRIENDS

Thank you Kami no Sennin for your review! Yes it seems kinda rushed, but it is intentional. You will see. And yes I'm sure there are quite a lot misspellings and backwards verses here and there as I don't understand how the beta read works, so no one is correcting my horrid mistakes! This is my first fic and everything is new for me. So bear with me a little please J

Regarding the topic of the shared "blood" of family that they may have… I didn't want to go there as there are many fics that start that way. I think they are not related at all, at least they are not closely related… Well at least I like to think about it in that way as for example the senju clan is made of different families and so on, so I think they are maybe related when one say that they are from the same clan, but not the same family

I'm very sorry for the long hiatus, but I have a new job that leaves me without time or energy to write…, but I think I'll be finding more time in the next couple of weeks to keep posting other chapters.

Please R&amp;R!

**OLD FRIENDS**

"So… tell me something, how is your Lil love Sasuke doing? Did he finally note your existence? Hahahah"

Karin frowned and with a quick movement she jumped and hit him hard on his fish face. That took him by surprise, falling to the ground and ending as a puddle of water.

"And you… still the same with your usual ugly and dumb fish face"

"Well I have to admit it... you're stronger now…" Suigetsu said whilst he rubbed his face turning solid again.

"It's been four years now, what do you think that was going to happen pffff, that I would turned in some kind of softy like you?" Karin said crossing her arms while she looked at him over her shoulder with smug smile on her face.

"Hehehe easy now witch, I come in peace" he said standing up and fixing his clothes. He could observe that Karin was looking at him curiously.

"So… what's up, what… have you've done these years…, of course if you are in liberty to say…" a hesitant Karin kinda asked.

"Well lil Karin, now I'm part of the village hidden in the rain. After you decided to follow Sasuke back to Konoha…" Suigetsu stopped when he noticed the stare that Karin was shooting at him. "Sorry, sorry, I sometimes forget" An amused smile crept on his lips. "After you decided on your own to leave to Konoha, I lived with Juggo for a while… but you know how he is" Suigetsu looked at Karin lifting one of his thin eyebrows , telling with his eyes what he didn't with words.

"Is he alive?"

"I think so, yes. After he tried to kill me whilst I slept I decided that the best for my future and my safety was to be as far away from him as possible" Suigetsu lifted his sword Kubikiribōchō placing it over his shoulder in remembrance of the time he spent after the war with his old pal Juggo. Karin meanwhile stood there, her arms unfolded now, watching him with curiosity.

"It's a miracle that you didn't try it first on him, you know kill him while he slept. Maybe he did it thinking that it was better to get ahead of things…" Karin was trolling him now.

"Karin, Karin, couldn't be more wrong. In this world friends are precious. I imagine that I should not have to explain this to you… additionally he was a really nice guy… except when he went mad and wanted to kill everything that was on his way. Anyway, that's how it went."

"So, why didn't you returned to Kirigakure? After all you are one of the new, maybe the only, legendary swordsman left. I think they would not refuse someone… with your qualities."

"I thought about it. I even spent two months in Kiri. Ha!" He spat on the ground. "But I could not accept its conditions. At all times I was under the insecure Chojuro big brother's eye, assigned to harder or dangerous missions, no rest, I even thought they were thinking in killing me… like the good old days, you know? Haha those bastards… They couldn't trust me at all, so I got sick of his stupid distrust. I mean, what were they thinking, that I would turn mad like Kizame and kill my team mates? Although… it was not like I didn't want it you know, but that would only probe them right…" Suigetsu's attention directed to Karin as she suddenly turned serious. "What? It seems that it sound familiar for you".

Karin, dignified and untrusting, looked at him, but didn't answer. And that it was an answer already.

"And… why Amegakure? Is not the same as Kiri?" Karin broke the short and uncomfortable silence that was created by her non-response.

"No, as you know since that Hanzo guy died… or better since he was murdered by Pain, no leader has been elected in that village. A lot of clans had fought with each other for power without success, as their heads keep dying in strange circumstances, victims of complots and coup de stat. currently it's ruled by an old dude's assembly. Among all that disorder and distrust, Amegakure has tuned in the most attractive village for people like us"

"Hey don't count me in. I'm doing all right in Konoha, ok? Otherwise I would be long gone" Karin lied.

"If that is true it means that Sasuke finally fall for your tricks, congratulations bitch!" Suigetsu couldn't help it.

"GODDAMM SUIGETSU! SASUKE MEANS NOTHING TO ME!" Karin threatened with violence, yelling at Suigetsu with her arm pumping the air with her eyes full of rage.

"Uouhhh chill Karin, something can pop in your head and then I'll be blamed for your death. I don't want to be responsible for a diplomatic incident hehe"

Karin relaxed a little, crossing her arms again.

"Well if is not Sasuke, then you must have some good reasons… If it is something similar as the way I lived in Kiri then those got to be some gooood reasons… to put up with that" He said mischievously.

"Is obvious that I've got a different treatment, you fool fish face, who could trust you with that face of yours? Hahaha" Karin was trying to convince herself of what she said. Suigetsu had been observing her taking note of her eye bags, filthy clothes, and disheveled demeanor, as if she had been on the road for ages… she looked kinda pale too.

"Hate to say it… but, you would be a good addition to Amegakure, Karin. Is always good to have sensors, there are not many you know? Besides no one will ask you about your past or doubt you because of it… as they all have one. A lot of people did a lot of nasty stuff there; you know that the third war was ruthless with those people"

"Well Suigetsu, if you worked for Amegakure Tourism Department, they would kick you out in a week! Hahaha, a village without leaders, full of renegades, where it always rains and the sun never comes up. "

"Hehehe you may have a point there Lil Karin." Responded an amused Suigetsu. "But all of that gives you more freedom. Nevertheless the assembly takes its job of keeping the peace quite seriously. The renegades have to start from scratch, come on Karin you know the feeling, don't ya?"

Karin reflected and remembered why she had decided to live in a village, rejecting Suigetsu and Juggo's idea to roam the world. She always acted in behalf of third party interest, never knowing what was what she really wanted or where she was coming from thus not knowing what she wanted to be or do; Karin had decided to be part of Konoha as a Kunoichi _because _she wanted to be part of a community, to be part of some meaningful history and finally found something about herself, doing something that _she _and no others wanted. She didn't know quite well after all, if after those four years she was considered one member of that community. She stared intently to his old friend, Suigetsu, and rapidly decided that she needed to get back to Konoha and really think things through, especially why she was still there after all those mistreatments.

"Well Suigetsu, I don't have much time to waste as I'm sure you do so…" Karin doubted a little but continued "if everything goes wrong in Konoha I'll be knocking at your door, and you better answer!" She gave him the scroll and started to get ready to head back to Konoha. She was tired so she didn't want to keep the conversation with his former teammate going… in spite of her telling him without wanting it about her life till that moment.

"Say hi to Sasuke for me"

"Why don't you say it to him personally? He'll be marrying in a couple of months with the youngest Hyuga"

"Well… if he invites me, I'll be there. Although I'm not counting with that happening, you know, people like you, in large and dignified villages like Konoha, will try to earn the trusts of its members no matter what… so you'll have to negate all your past and the people that fill it. But come on, don't give me that look Karin, you know is true, don't you dare to think that it bothers me, not at all" With a sly smile, Suigetsu turned, grabbing the scroll and started walking back to Amegakure.

Karin turned around as Suigetsu, taking the road that lead to Konoha.

"Hey! Fish face!" Suigetsu stopped, turning his head slightly so she would notice that he was listening. "I'm…" Her voice cracked a little "I'm glad you're ok"

"Well witch…, ditto".

Smiling at each other like when old friends meet, both took different roads back to their villages. Karin was tired. She felt somewhat nostalgic after seeing his stupid old partner in crime. She could tell that he didn't have it easy but it was not something to worry about, he could be a humanoid fish but it was a very clever humanoid fish. She on the other hand didn't know if the path she had chosen was the right one. She took a look at herself and saw that it was not a quite dignified Konoha ambassador or even messenger. She was beaten up due to the recent battle and her clothes were full of dust. She couldn't run or walk fast as her strength and chakra had diminished to very low levels. How the hell did she end up that way?

Well… the conditions to have the "distinction" of being a Konoha kunoichi, that was how. Mission after mission, very few rest, dangerous missions, carrying messages to wherever, and the most frustrating thing, not been part of a settle ninja team. That was the worst, as she couldn't have lasting friendships as the rest of the shinobi force. Untrust and odd stares by the villagers was what she got, very little freedom, the obligation to report every little move she did, even if she was hurt so they could be certain that she didn't scape and a long etc… it was really worth it?, all that sacrifice just to be a part of the village?, and after all, what did she have to show after all that time?, what did Konoha have given to her up till then?

Those were Karin's thoughts as she walked slowly back to Konoha.

* * *

It was late at night and Karin was nowhere to be found. Sasuke and Naruto's mission as ANBUs was quite unpleasant. Sai had arrived to Konoha first with the Feudal attackers and they were immediately interrogated by Ibiki's team. Nevertheless they had reserved the dirty work of kicking the truth out of them to the ANBU team who were on shift, and that would be Sasuke and Naruto. After they finished with that, Sasuke returned to Konoha whilst Naruto decided to wait by the main gate for Karin to return. He had not been quite attentive of her and he even knew why, he even knew it had a name –Sakura-. He was mad at himself and wanted to make up for his inattentive ways.

_"__Godammit, why is she not here already?" _Naruto thought to himself, reclining against an entrance door beam. Going through his actions that day, Naruto thought that he definitely was not attentive to her. He didn't want to admit that he indeed was much more worried about Sakura, his security and wellbeing and their precious chat than Karin's. So, in order to avoid or even cancel those worrisome thoughts, Naruto decided to make up to her in some way. He only had to wait for her to return. But what the hell, she was taking her time now.

He started to get worried; maybe something happened to her on the way, maybe some kind of ambush from which she could not get away from. Preoccupation started to increase and he decided that he could no longer keep waiting like a fool there.

Jumping up to the threes and through the forest he quickly got away from Konoha's main gate and followed the path that connected the village with Amegakure's border. It didn't take long before he could see a silhouette walking slowly on the other direction that he was on. Suddenly he saw as the shadow tripped falling to the ground heavily, ending up on its hands and knees. It was Karin.

She was very tired and couldn't keep going. She realized it when she could not gather enough energy to pick herself up after tripping for the third time in the poorly lighted path that led to Konoha.

"Maybe the best is… to rest some" She told to herself aloud, while she considered a tree with a slight concave base where she could rest.

"Maybe the best is to rest in your bed"

Shocked as she didn't felt the presence or strangers ahead, Karin looked up, her eyes meeting a tall shadow approaching her.

"Naruto!"

Naruto placed Karin on his back in a piggyback position. Even if she had thought otherwise about it, she didn't have the strength to fight him, so she accepted the help that he was giving to her.

"How was your mission?" Naruto asked while he walked back to Konoha.

"Good, the messenger turned out to be fish face Suigetsu" Karin said with a sleepy and tired voice.

"Who?"

Karin could feel the warmth of Naruto's back, his muscles and his special and unique scent. She remembered some old stories about the scent of the loved ones. It was something very pleasurable and exquisite for the other half to smell and be near them; she thought that Naruto's scent fitted perfectly in that description, as for her it was almost addictive.

Even though Konoha hasn't been nice to her, she definitely had to acknowledge that living there allowed her to meet someone like Naruto. His concern about her, his humor, the way he was with her, uncomplicated and joyful, his touch and caresses, filled her life in a way she never thought it could be. That definitely was the good that Konoha had given to her, that made her stay there. She relaxed and breathing deeply, she fell asleep failing to respond to his question.

"Suigetsu who? Eh? Karin?" Naruto turned his head to find that she had fallen asleep. Her hair brushed her face in a disorderly but still charming way. She looked beautiful. Naruto watched her for a while longer trying to remember every little shadow and every line and crevice that composed her face, feeling that every detail was been recorded in his heart. There were not words in his dictionary to describe what he felt there and then but it he knew them, he didn't feel capable of expressing them. However what he did know was that what he was feeling it for the first time, not even with Sakura he felt that way. He felt that things were meaningful when she was with him, that everything will be alright and that she kind of understood him. From now on he thought, he would be there for her. Naruto hurried so they could be home in Konoha fast. He had to take her to rest and… he had a pending talk with Tsunade.


End file.
